Lost
by WriteShop
Summary: It has been six years since the end of the end of the Fifth Holy Grail war. It had ended not with a bang, but with a whimper, with Shirou and Rin seeking their separate destinies. Now, as Rin is forced to deal with spell ritual gone horribly awry, Fate brings them back together again. Sequel to Trackless.
1. Chapter 1

Rin Tohsaka stormed up to her garret apartment. Not that she spent much time there, but it was good to have a place that she could call her own, when she was back in London. She slammed the door, making everything shake.

She looked around the room – a bed, a bureau and a dining room table were crammed up against the tiny kitchenette. A thin layer of dust covered everything.

Rin opened the door and slammed it again for good measure. It had been that sort of week.

((yesterday))

"Sir?" Rin called out as her mentor paced, chanting around the outside of the magic circle. It had taken the two of them most of the morning to scribe the circle in his workroom, and all the runes that intertwined it. It was delicate work – the runes had to be placed just right to direct the magical energies that they were pouring into the circle. "Sir? I don't think the candles should be guttering like that." Two of the five candles looked like they were about to go out.

But Rin's mentor, Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg - The wizard martial, the Master of the Second Magic, the grand high poobah of all magus kind and a colossal pain in everybody's ass - just waved as if to say that it was not important and continued with his chant. His eyes were sparkling with excitement, and he was almost skipping. He had chosen what promised to be a fascinating parallel dimension to demonstrate dimensional travel to Rin. She had been working on dimensional magic for some time, but this would be her first foray into actually traveling 'elsewhere', so he wanted her to have the full experience, by doing it the old fashioned way.

And a candle went out. As Rin watched, wide eyed, smoke poured from the candle, forming a solid mass, like a smeared line drawn vertically through the room.

"Master!" Rin called and pointed as a huge clawed tentacle reached out through the smoky smear and made clenching motions, like it was feeling around for something to grab. There was something disturbing, something very wrong on a very basic level with that appendage, though. Even looking at it caused Rin's gorge to rise.

"Oh," The Wizard Marshal finally stopped. "That's not good." He glanced over at his student. "Rin, can you be a dear and keep that… whatever... from entering into our reality while I close this rift between worlds?"

Rin ground her teeth. Zelretch was always doing this. He never paid attention to details. And more often than not, she had to clean up the mess. She pronounced "Blitzvorhang!" and unleashed a curtain of lightning from her hands. It would have been better if she had a couple of gems handy for power, but oh no, mister high and mighty had said they might distort the dimension spell.

The lightning smashed into the nausea inducing claw, causing it to flinch back momentarily. But then it reached out again, this time directly towards Rin. The fur on the tentacle began to smoke as lighting danced along it, but the creature didn't care.

Rin edged back as the appendage stretched a good twenty feet towards her. '_How big is that thing?'_ She was backed all the way to the wall when it finally reached maximum extension and began flailing about, hoping to catch something vulnerable by chance.

Rin looked around desperately for something she could use to force the hand back. The lighting blast was her most powerful spell. She didn't have any gem with her, and her command of dimensional magic was limited (and besides, that WOULD interfere with whatever Zelretch was doing). Desperate, she fell back to the spell that she had mastered as a teenager. Gandr.

As the black orbs smashed into the arm, it flinched and shied, pulling back quickly through the rift. As soon as it was clear, Zelretch made a slashing motion with his wand (who used a wand in this day and age?), and the smoky rift dissipated.

"Hooh. That was something." He smiled, "That calls for a cold beer. And I know just the place – It's a little pub two dimensions over - they have over two thousand of the best craft brews in the entire universe on tap." He grabbed his scarf and headed towards the door, "I'll be back in a couple of weeks." he waved over his shoulder to Rin.

"Wait, what about me?"

"Oh, you should check to see if the spell opened any other rifts. Typically, when when a dimensional spell slips off it's moorings like this, you get a couple, scattered here and there." As he walked, he began to fade from view, dimension stepping. Just before he disappeared, he called out, "Oh, and don't cast any magic within a hundred yards of the closed rift for a bit."

((now))

Which was why Rin was back in London, instead of her work room at Zelretch's mansion in Austria. She was dressed in her typical work uniform – comfortable pants (reinforced, black) comfortable blouse (reinforced, black) and uncomfortable sweater (red). The sweater was her good luck charm, and the only thing she had retained from her teenage years. Her hair was cut in a bob that might have been stylish 50 years ago, but now just kept her hair out of her way.

Rin tossed her suitcase onto the bed and quickly set up the scrying spell that would find any other 'problems' from the disaster yesterday: A copper frame (careful not to bend the delicate rods), with a gold pendulum dangled from it (completely still, or the spell would take longer to zero in), a pair of incantations and a gem on top to power everything. She had gotten quite skilled at it. She set the contraption up on her dining table and let it run – it would take at least 24 hours to complete (depending on the distance of the rifts). And she had things she needed to do.

After a quick shower, it was off to the 'Arena' - there was always some Enforcers hanging around there. The arena was the part of the Clock Tower's gymnasium that was set up for sparring (both magical and mundane).

And pounding into the ground some smug, stuck up upper class twat who thought she was inferior for being Asian would make her feel better. She her lips compressed into an almost smile as she strode purposefully down the path from her apartment to the Clock Tower.

Rin didn't think of herself as being an angry person, but in the past few years more and more things irritated her. What used to be an exasperation when things didn't go according to her (meticulous) plans had intensified and become her default reaction to everything.

The universe just didn't measure up to her standards.

"Rin? How are you? It's been ages!" Rin turned in surprise - it was Luviagelita 'Luvia' Edelfelt. They had roomed together back when they were students. And competed against each other in everything. Luvia was dressed in one of her signature Victorian-esque dresses, blond ringlets bouncing with every step. If you didn't know her, you would think she was 19'th century ditz.

Luvia liked being underestimated.

Rin's eyebrow spasmed. "I will tell you all about it after I am done at the Arena."

Luvia dropped into step by her side, "Bad day?" From three years of rooming together, she knew how Rin's mind worked. And Rin was her friend, even if her mind didn't work like normal people.

Rin just growled by way of answer.

"I'll tell you what: I'll spar with you, and then we go get some coffee?" Luvia figured that saving some poor Enforcer's life would be her good deed for the day.

"Done."

^lost^

"Feel better?" Luvia helped Rin up off the floor.

"Yeah." Rin rolled her shoulder where she had hit the ground. "I'm done – I need to be fresh to deal with whatever disaster my mentor has let for me. After that, we can have a rematch so I can beat you."

"Please," Luvia rolled her eyes again. "Like you have ever beat me," she turned to walk with Rin towards the changing rooms. Despite her teasing, Luvia was glad to see Rin – the Tohsaka heir was one of the few people who completely ignored her family name and treated her like a normal person.

"Actually, there was winter break of our freshman year, then after that.." Rin began ticking off on her fingers

Fifteen minutes later, the two of them were at the cafeteria, sitting at a little wrought iron table, sipping coffee.

"So the Wizard Marshal has potentially endangered the whole world, and and then decided to go for a beer. Tell me again, why are you apprenticing with him?"

Rin sighed, but smiled. Despite their competitiveness, she could always trust Luvia to have her back. "One problem at a time – I'll figure out what to do about Zelretch later. Right now, I need to deal with the rifts. I just hope there aren't too many of them."

Luvia shrugged, her tightly curled blond ringlets bouncing. Rin couldn't understand how they stayed so perfectly wound, even after a spar. Magic had to be involved. "Let me know if you need a team on this one. I have been training with the Enforcers to get a little worldly experience, so I know some people."

Technically, a disaster of this nature was supposed to be reported to Barthomeloi Lorelei and the Clock Tower steering committee, but given how they handed out sealing designations like bubble gum, nobody actually did that unless it was clear that an eldritch abomination was about to cause a mass casualty event.

And that it was going to be too big to cover up.

"Thanks. I may take you up on that."

^lost^

"OK, guys, here's the deal." Rin turned around to face her team as they walked through Heathrow airport, forcing an upbeat and cheerful expression onto her face, "Zelretch screwed the pooch, and he's left the mess for me to clean up. I was able to find two places where his spell has weakened the boundaries of reality. One is in Poland, one in Japan. We'll take care of Poland first, as it's closer. I'll deal with sealing up the rift, but it's your job to make sure nothing bothers me while I do it. Got it?"

She took a moment to glare at the others, to make sure they were paying attention, and that they understood that 'bothering her' was a death sentence for them as well.

She then turned back around and headed for the boarding area, Luvia by her side. As they walked up the jet bridge (and the rest of the team straggled behind), she gave Luvia a dirty look. Some 'team' this was: In addition to Luvia (who admittedly was worth her (light) weight in gold), it consisted of Megumi Tohdoh, a bookish paper mage who looked like she hadn't set foot outside of the Clock Tower in ten years, and Alberto Octavio De la Cruz, a young enforcer who was so wet behind the ears that he was practically dripping – he had just graduated a couple of weeks ago.

The blond shrugged nonchalantly. "I got one more - Emile Leblanc. He's currently on another mission, but he will meet us in Poland."

"Well, I hope he's more promising than these two." Rin muttered. She wasn't worried about being overheard, as Alberto was talking animatedly and giving all his attention to Megumi, who remained withdrawn despite his concerted efforts.

Alberto picked that moment to expound on something with particular vehemence, talking with his hands in a typical Spanish fashion, and almost knocked a boarding sign down. A small smile quirked Megumi's lips.

Rin just rolled her eyes. She could already tell that was going to be a problem. Alberto wasn't even talking to her, but she found him grating. It was only a matter of time before Megumi exploded and took his head off.

"It's hard to get experienced Enforcers on such sort notice. And these two are pretty good. Alberto was top of his class, and Megumi is very talented."

As she walked, trailing behind Rin and Luvia, Megumi's mind was abuzz with excitement. This was the first time she had left the Clock Tower in the 7 years since she had arrived there as a precocious 16 year old. But she needed to get out from behind her books, and start advancing her career. And assisting Zelretch's protégé was a prestigious start. And the Edelfelt heir was also here! And the rather energetic young enforcer who was walking beside her... She hadn't had this much excitement in…. ever. She walked placidly up the up the airplane bridge.

Rin snorted, "So who's this Emile guy? Another romantic conquest?"

"Give me a break, I only did that back in freshman year. No, he was at the Clock Tower for a semester last year, taking a class on runic magic and that was all. He had no interest in research or anything."

"Runes? Isn't that a freshman class?" Runes were used in all magic rituals, but by themselves were very weak. Only a few old time masters had been able to use them as stand-alone spells.

"Usually, but Orrick Lundson was running a seminar on some of the more advanced application. I don't know much more than that – I didn't sit in on it. I had a series of experiments running, and my mother was driving me nuts." Luvia had originally gone to work with her family on their branch of magics (as is traditional) before getting fed up and striking off on her own. "But I saw him spar at the Arena. He was good. And I looked over some the texts that he was reading at the General Library, and they were pretty advanced applications." The pair sat down at their seats. Megumi and Alberto squeezed by, their seats were two rows back.

"So you did try to pick him up."

Luvia rolled her eyes, "Not that he noticed. He is more obsessive than you. Anyway, what about the second portal?" Luvia changed the topic.

Rin shrugged, "All I know is that it's in Japan. I set up a second scrying spell to triangulate, but that won't be ready for at least another day. Hopefully it will work well enough so that we will at least know which airport to fly into. Waver agreed to check in on it and give me a call when it's finished."

"You're really concerned about this, aren't you?" Luvia asked. Rin was usually really methodical. She hated multi-tasking like this.

"Zelretch didn't just go powder his nose. He ditched this reality. That means he figured there was a significant chance that his mess up would go apocalyptic."

^lost^

Once in Poland, Rin rented a Land Rover and set up a smaller version of her spell in the glove box – the one she had done back in London had only told them that the rift was in a forest somewhere, and gave them a location to within a hundred miles (Scrying was dicey work, especially over an ocean and lots of streams of running water). This spell was much more basic – it would just point them in the direction of the rift, and maybe give them a distance - but it was portable: all of the pieces were attached to a wooden board that could almost fit in her palm. There was a gold fob supported by fishing line hanging off of glass beads on an array of small bronze rods. It looked like some Rube Goldberg machine from Victorian times, but it would do the job.

"Should we wait for Emile?" Megumi asked from the the passenger seat. Rin had gotten fed up with the whole middle school drama between Megumi and Alberto and exiled Luvia to the back seat to occupy the young enforcer. Strangely, he had fallen silent when Luvia began to flirt with him.

Alberto sat, tense. This was his first big mission (he had gone on a couple of Apostle hunts when he was in training, but he had been relegated to the clean up crew, dealing with any Dead that slipped past the main team), and he wanted to make a good impression. Especially on Megumi. Unfortunately, when he was nervous, he tended to talk. Too much. But soon it would be time for action, and then he would have his opportunity to shine, and show them all his skills. He glanced sideways at the much too forward (and slightly scary) blond woman seated next to him. Impressing her would be good too. He just hoped that his nattering on didn't annoy Megumi.

"No, Emile's still a couple of hours out. I will give him the GPS coordinates once we are a little closer," Luvia called out from the back seat.

"I agree. There's no telling what has come through the rift. It's been almost four days." Rin glanced at the gps before swerving onto an unpaved country road that led into the depths of the Black Forest.

This used to be the frontier between Eastern and Western Europe, and it had been a 'no go' zone, so nobody had come in to cut down the primeval forest. Even now, long after the Cold War was over, the forest was still dark and impenetrable except for a few paths. The trees here were all huge and ancient, and even during the day it was dusk under their canopy.

The road was pitted, causing the Land Rover to shake and wallow as it slowly wended its way into the forest.

"Are you certain this is actually a road?" Alberto peered into the forest nervously.

"It is now, unless you would rather walk?" Rin replied as she steered around an exceptionally large pot hole. According to the GPS, this was their only option for going in the direction that the spell pointed them.

After several hours of slow, painful (literally) driving, with the passengers bounce up and down, Rin finally gave up. "I think we go on foot from here." Everything felt wobbly from the shaking.

"That's fine," Megumi inspected the scrying spell. "According to this, we are only a couple of miles away, and we can't get too much closed by car anyway."

"Grab your gear," Rin popped the trunk of the car.

Alberto pulled out a crossbow and a quiver of bolts. Some were plain wood, others had silver tips, and still others had runes inscribed on them.

Megumi grabbed what looked like an artists sketch pad and a courier bag full of stuff.

Luvia pulled off her floofy Victorian dress, revealing that underneath she was wearing a military style combat harness. She slipped on a camo vest and a bandoleer jammed full of little vials. Seeing Rin's raised eyebrow, she shrugged sheepishly "I can't afford gems on an Enforcer's salary, so I've been stretching what I have by turning them into potions."

Rin just jammed a small padded bag into the pocket of her favorite red velvet coat. "Let's go," She led the way into the woods.

"Just a second." Luvia sat back down in the car and fiddled with the radio transmitter that she had brought along. "OK, I sent the coordinates. Emile says he will be here in about an hour."

Rin jerked her head in a sharp nod.

The team trooped into the dark of the forest. The trees here were massive, old, and seeped in mana. It made walking easier, as there was almost no underbrush, except in patches were a tree had fallen, creating a clearing.

"Be careful with your spells," Luvia added, "The magic here is raw and undirected. A bad spell can go completely out of control."

"Well then, I'll just have to not lose control of my spells." Alberto smiled at her. Which is when a spear of inky blackness struck him in the chest.

"Holy.." Luvia dived for cover as another spear flashed through where she had been moments ago.

Rin dropped behind a bush and let out a spray of Gandr towards where the attack had come from (or so she hoped). Something moved to avoid the black spheres "There!"

Megumi flung a handful of postcard sized papers at the attackers. As these flew out, they folded themselves into darts that swooped around the tree cover, cutting into the enemy with their razor sharp wings.

Their attackers were a pair of featureless, pitch black humanoids. Spears of blackness shot out from their hands, but other than that they were fairly incompetent combatants. The paper darts looped around the tree that they were using for cover, driving them out into the open. Rin and Luvia took them both out promptly with Gandr.

"I see you're still using that spell you stole from my family," Luvia quipped.

"Yes, and better than you." Rin moved up to inspect the bodies. "These are definitely not from around here. Megumi, can you send out a familiar to scout ahead?"

The quiet woman nodded, pulling out a large sheet of paper from her artist sketchpad, which promptly folded itself into a bird.

Luvia helped Alberto up. His flack vest had stopped most of the attack, but it had still hit him pretty hard - he was having a hard time time taking deep breaths. "Can you keep going?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine," he grunted, adjusting the strap of his crossbow. There was no way he was dropping out. Being taken out like that was an embarrassment. He was better than than. He glanced at Megumi to see if she had judged him as inadequate, but the quiet woman was busy with her spell.

"OK, lets advance a little more cautiously." Rin moved to take cover by a tree, "do you see anything?" she called out to the paper mage.

Megumi shook her head, "No, it looks like the area immediately ahead of us is clear."

^lost^

An hour later, the group was hidden behind a stand of small trees at the edge of a clearing. The clearing was big, with a bubbling black pit in the middle, out of which more of the featureless humanoids were climbing out of. The most disturbing part of the scene, though, was the absolute silence. The creatures did not communicate through sound, if they communicated at all. Rin grimaced as she counted their numbers. At least their motions were slow and awkward.

"There are a lot of them," Alberto whispered as he watched the faceless move with some unknown purpose.

Rin nodded, "You go left and provide covering fire as Luvia and I make a run for the opening. I need to be closer to seal it up. Megumi, you send your birds to harass them from here."

Alberto slipped off to the side, heading for the base of a large tree. Rin counted to five and then she and Luvia charged in. As soon as they stepped into the clearing, all of the black figure whipped their heads around to focus on them and charged as one.

'_Ok, so they do communicate'_ Even under the stress of combat, Rin was still observing and theorizing.

The dark men ran in a disturbingly loose limbed fashion. Luvia was certain that each step would see them falling down, but they didn't. And they moved surprisingly fast once they put their minds to it.

A crossbow bolt from the left took one out, and a swarm of origami birds swooped in to slow down a couple on the right, but the rest quickly converged onto the two women.

"Maybe that wasn't such a good plan." Rin threw a gem, detonating a pair of the creatures as they converged. Luvia splashed a potion off to her side as she ran, creating a rainbow of light that hung midair. One of the featureless humanoids tried to run through it, only to discover that it was more substantial than it appeared. As it stumbled back, it knocked a second creature off balance so that it caught the edge of the rainbow with its arm, slicing it open to the bone.

A third did make it past the barrier and stretched out its arms to grapple Luvia, but Luvia changed direction, slipping under its grab and throwing it directly on top of the rainbow arch. Dark blood pooled down as the body spasmed on top, cut almost in half.

But her advance was stymied as more of the figures were rushing to attack, heedless of injury.

Rin was also forced to stop and take cover, dancing around a bush as a silent figure tried to grab at her. It was strangely reluctant to just push through the flimsy vegetation. Rin didn't understand what was going through its head, at least not until she drilled its noggin with a concussive spell.

Alberto abandoned his sniping position (and his crossbow), as he tried to divert some of the attackers from Rin and Luvia. He ran in, casting flaming darts at the enemy. But the faceless ones did not seem to feel pain. Alberto soon found himself in hand to hand combat against a pair of faceless figures, both of whom were smoldering in spots from his spells.

A storm of papers swirled in, obstructing visibility and slowing the Faceless, but Rin and Luvia were still pinned down next to the rainbow, unable to advance.

"How many of these things are there?"

Rin didn't bother to reply. Her mind was going like a hamster in a wheel, alternating between futile plans and recrimination, _'I can't believe I just charged in. What kind of idiot am I? We need a distraction so that we can retreat. I can't lob a gem far enough to draw them away.'_

The battle was unnaturally quite, so the sound of the single engine propeller plane was clearly audible as it swept in, just above the trees.

The passenger door slid open, and a person in a trench coat leaped down to the clearing. Before the Faceless had time to react, there was the hissing of arrows.

_**Sfft **_

Moments later, the battle was no longer quite as arrows flashed out across the clearing from where the man had landed.

**BOOM**

And detonating.

_**Sfft**_

**BOOM**

More arrows leaped across the clearing, but now the shooter was moving, so Rin couldn't pinpoint the source. Each one struck a Faceless and detonated, ripping it apart.

Rin kicked a faceless in the stomach before palm striking it in the side of the head. "Who?" She pointed towards their savior. Even with relief flooding through her, Rin was still the sort to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Emile?" Luvia called out, pushing her attackers back a step, but there was no reply. Instead a pair of arrows struck the Faceless confronting the two women. These did not explode, but they did not need to, as they took them both in their throats. The ferocity of the attack stunned the Faceless – the archer was everywhere, his explosive arrows rocking all sides of the clearing. And he wasn't scared to engage the Faceless in hand to hand if they got too close either. Luvia smiled _'I struck the jackpot with this one.'_

"Ok." Rin ran for the edge of the pit, Luvia at her heals, Gandr-ing any opponent that crossed their path. But as they approached the pit, it bubbled vigorously, spitting out a stream of more Faceless.

Meanwhile, Alberto was struggling to keep the claw-like hands from his face. He was breathing hard from where another Faceless had stabbed him in the side, and was bleeding from gashes on his legs when a sword whistled through above him, decapitating his opponent. "Get to cover." Emile charged back into the fray.

"Blitzvorhang!" Rin unleashed her lighting, clearing a path to the pit. She immediately followed that up with a quick (miscast) dimensional spell, which caused the pit to ripple, tearing the black figures that were trying to crawl out in twain.

As the it subsided, Rin started casting more methodically, slowly sealing up the gap in reality.

Ten minutes later, it was all over. As the paper cloud cleared, the only people standing were the humans.

Rin looked over at Emile, and did a double take, "Shirou?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter

Alberto was panting - taking too deep a breath hurt - and he was light headed. '_I must have lost some blood.'_ Either that or he had a concussion. He tried to sit up, but somebody pushed him gently back down and said something to him. He couldn't make sense of the words – his ears weren't working right. But before real panic could set in, a magical warmth began to spread up from his side, clearing his head. _'Well, that didn't go as planned'._

Rin looked around the clearing turned battlefield: Megumi was crouching over Alberto, wrapping bandages over his wounds. He looked unhealthily pale. Luvia was walking around checking for any living enemies.

Rin turned back to face their rescuer – a tall red head dressed in a black coat. Emile Leblanc. Aka Shirou Emiya. "So. How are you? What have you been up to lately?" She wasn't certain what to say or how to say it. They hadn't talked in five, almost six years. Not since she had walked out of his life. It was incredibly awkward. But at the same time, she was glad to see him – she had been wanting to find out what he was doing for years, but hadn't known how to ask (or even how to contact him).

((two years ago))

Shirou crouched, watching as the SUV made its way up the dirt road, over to the edge of the farm field. It stopped next to a pickup truck, and moments later a pair of men dressed much too nicely to be farmers stepped out, to be greeted by a similar pair from the truck. Standing in the lee of the two vehicles, they started talking in Italian.

They were Capos for a local Mafia, along with a pair of bodyguards.

Shirou smiled, _'good thing I paid attention to Rin's instructions.'_ Back before, he would have just charged in and killed the lot of them, but Rin had drilled into him the need for research. So he had gone to an old Jewish Magus in Rione Sant'Angelo, and spent six months mastering a spell to speed up learning a new language (which he practiced with a half dozen European languages). And at the same time, he had learned how 'Justice' worked, here in Italy. This was his first attempt to make use of that knowledge.

Shirou stood up, stepping from between the rows of wheat out into the open, where the men could see him. He was plainly dressed, with no weapons, just a sack in his right hand.

"I come to speak on behalf of the elders of Ficuzza." He paused to see if his Italian was clear enough. The men watched attentively. One of them kept his hand hovering over a hidden holster. "They say that they respect you, and that they have always paid their Pizzo, their protection money, on time. But they respectfully ask that you keep the Pizzo at 10%. That has always been the rate, and it is a fair deal. They can not pay the new 30% rate."

Shirou stood, tense, as he applied his new knowledge on behalf of the town of Ficuzza.

"And who do you think you are, to tell us our business?" Asked the Capo on the left. At the same time, the one on the right demanded, "why should we negotiate with you?"

Shirou ignored the question. "The 30% rate will not be profitable, as you will have a hard time collecting it without your chief enforcers." He dumped the contents of his sack onto the ground – two heads that had been reinforced to prevent them from rotting rolled out.

One of the guards went for his gun, but before he could shoot, he found Shirou standing at his side, and his gun hand laying on the ground. Shirou made a show of sheathing the knife behind his back. "This man needs a tourniquet, or he will bleed out."

The two Capos looked at each other, and one nodded. The second guard pulled off his tie and wrapped it around the arm of his compatriot.

"10% was fair in my fathers day. So I see no reason not to keep it at 10%," the Capo on the left finally ground out. Shirou nodded.

"Who are you?" The other capo asked.

"That does not matter. I am just a helper. The elders of Ficuzza asked me for my assistance, but they did not know my plan. This," Shirou swept to encompass the heads and the injured soldati, "should no be held to their account."

The Capo nodded again, "that is fair. I have no issue with them, or you. But Guido," He pointed to one of the heads, "Had a younger brother. He will kill you if he sees you."

"So he will not see me," Shirou backed into the tall wheat growing behind him and disappeared from sight.

Once, he would have tried to act the part of a 'Hero of Justice,' driving these extortionists out, but he had learned that all that would happen was that some other Mafia would just take over the operation a couple of months later. So now, he compromised his principles.

((now))

"I have been traveling around, helping people settle disputes peacefully and bringing a little justice to those that needed it. How about you?" Shirou took a longer look at Rin. "You look good. Are you still trying to be the best magus of our generation?" Shirou steered the conversation away from himself - he wasn't certain how to explain his life. Half the time, it didn't make much sense even to him. It certainly wasn't what he had dreamed of doing. And Rin... If it wasn't about magic, she wasn't interested. She had made that painfully clear. He adjusted his trench coat self consciously. Protective runes could faintly be seen on the inside, as their glow faded after the battle.

Rin took up her patented lecture pose, "I will have you know that I am apprenticed to the Wizard Martial Zelretch. You can't ask for a more prestigious appointment." It felt a little awkward – she hadn't used the 'lecture pose' since graduating high school.

"Ok." As Luvia came up to join them, Shirou turned to her, "Um, who's Zelretch?"

"Let's do the meet and greet after we get back. It would be embarrassing if we missed one of those faceless things and it killed us while we were exchanging phone numbers," Luvia snarked.

Rin snapped back to work, "She's right. And Alberto doesn't look so good. Let's head back for the Jeep."

"Land Rover," Luvia corrected.

"Whatever."

Shirou draped Alberto's arm over his shoulder and Megumi stabilized him on the other side. The group trooped out of the forest, with Rin and Luvia scanning for threats. The drive back to the hotel was surprisingly quiet. Rin, who was usually loquacious, replied to Luvia's questions in monosyllabic grunts, and Alberto was too busy suffering to flirt with Megumi.

"We'll spend the night, get some rest, and then head out to Japan," Rin finally pronounced.

^lost^

The following day found them all at the airport, in line to buy tickets to Tokyo. Alberto and Megumi were chatting quietly behind Rin, with Luvi standing back and watching the by play. Shirou stood off to one side, like he wasn't part of the group. He hated being in airports – it was too hard to monitor all potential threats.

Luvia was just about to comment on how tense Rin looked when Rin's phone rang. (She had finally gotten a cell phone a year ago. She wasn't certain how to do more than call and text, but that was really all a phone should do, in her not so humble opinion.)

"The spell locus has collapsed," It was Waver Velvet, from London. He did not sound pleased.

"And?"

"It's Fuyuki City."

"Oh. That is concerning," Rin groaned before turning to look over at the big board of flights.

"Tell me about. If the portal gets tangled in the lei lines," Waver began pedantically when Rin hung up on him.

"Everybody, this way!" She jumped out of the lane and power walked towards the neighboring airline. "Change of plan - we're going to Fuyuki."

^lost^

"This non-top traveling can get pretty disorientating," Alberto complained as he raced down the concourse after Rin. The flight she had booked them on was taking off in half an hour, and they had had to hypnotize their way past security and run all the way to get there before they shut the doors.

"Yeah, but you get used to it. You just have to compartmentalize your life," Shirou replied as they finally made it to the gate. Once on board, they squeezed down to their seats, past the overweight man loading a too large suitcase into a too small overhead compartment, and a gawky-tall teenager who was sticking his feet out into the aisle.

Currently, Shirou was compartmentalizing the mission to close the dimensional rift from the fact that the leader of said mission was Rin. That way, he could avoid thinking about the Tohsaka craziness (or the fact that she still looked very good despite the utilitarian haircut and no-nonsense clothing that was her current fashion)

"Well, I'm looking forwards to it. I've been all over Europe, but I've never been to Japan." Luvia chirped. "After we're done, I might stay for some sightseeing." She took her seat next to Rin.

Shirou was about to sit down next to Alberto, but Megumi uncharacteristically pushed past him, taking it first. "I know some healing spells," she stated by way of explanation. Shirou glanced over at the other man - Alberto was still a little pale. He smiled when Megumi sat down next to him, though.

"OK," Shirou ended up seated by himself.

"I know of all the famous tourist sites that everybody visits, " Luvia continued, "But are any of them magically active? I am just asking so that I can avoid whichever one it was that turned you into such a crusty old curmudgeon."

"I am not!" Rin replied, exasperated. She was stressed – dealing with Zelretch's mess, and then discovering that there was a potential apocalypse fermenting somewhere in her home town... '_I hope my house is ok,' _Rin stomach roiled. And having Shirou sitting two rows back, breathing down her neck, didn't help. Any moment now he was going to demand why she had been such a bitch in high school, and she didn't have any good answer.

"Well, maybe I should ask Shirou. The two of you have some sort of history."

"No, we just went to high school together. And then we lost touch afterwards. That's all."

"Uh, huh. So were you like this back in high school? Because I can't imagine you as a naive young schoolgirl." Actually, Luvia had a pretty good idea of how Rin was back in high school, but everybody had their own way of dealing with stress, and this was hers.

"Fine, ask Shirou." Rin got up to use the bathroom, to avoid the interrogation (and so that nobody would see her throwing back half the bottle of antacids that she had palmed from her bag. She was supposed to be perfectly composed, after all.)

"Hey, Shirou can you help me with the window shade? It's stuck." Luvia asked.

The next thing he knew, Shirou was trapped in the window seat, with Luvia between him and the aisle.

When Rin came back from the rest room, she glanced over at Alberto and Megumi as she walked past where the two disappointments were seated and tried not to scowl. Alberto was scratching at his arm – most of his body was a single contiguous bruise, the damage covered by a sweater and an illusion (to prevent security from flipping out). Rin was surprised to see that Megumi was being very solicitous, adjusting a pillow and blanket to make Alberto as comfortable as possible _'Huh, I thought she found him as annoying as I do. He's loud and brash and insecure. Not at all like Shirou.' _She glanced up to where Shirou was seated. She was less than amused when she saw that the red head was now seated next to Luvia. "Hey, that's my seat!"

"You told me to ask Shirou about how you were as a teenager, so I am just following your instructions. You can take Shirou's old seat." Luvia smiled sweetly.

Rin glanced back two rows to the open spot, next to a Chinese businessman. A growl escaped her. Shirou just shrugged, as if to say 'what can you do?'

Rin stomped off. At least it was an aisle seat.

"So, Shirou, how long did you date Rin?" Luvia was bubbling with excitement, to Shirou's bemusement. She was a pretty enough girl, but he didn't have time for such distractions – he had to make the world a safer place. Though he was still a little vague on what the best way to do that was (being a 'Hero of Justice' was a bad joke).

"We never went out." Shirou replied quickly.

"Oh, come on. I can spot a bad break up from a mile away. Lord knows I've had enough of them myself. So who broke it off?"

Shirou sighed. "We were just friends. We drifted apart because Rin got more focused on her magecraft." There was no way that Shirou was going to air dirty laundry about Rin. Especially not with her sitting two rows back, listening in with a monomaniacal intensity.

He did sometimes sit and wonder 'What if?', but it was a pointless exercise. The past was just that – dead and gone.

^lost^

"This is definitely not our Fuyuki" The first man pointed towards a plaza to the left of the skyscraper. "The Fuyuki Hilton is supposed to be there." He was visibly restraining his excitement.

The second man nodded, "And the cars are a different style. Somehow, we have been pulled into the future. If we could just find a newspaper, we could find out the exact date." looked around, taking in the city around them, so much like their own, but slightly different in little ways. Unlike his companion, he did not appear excited by this.

"You know what that means, Kirei? We just experienced a True Magic! We need to find out if it was something spontaneous, or if we were actively summoned to this time. This could be a breakthrough of earth shattering proportions!"

The second nodded agreement, "What of our responsibilities?"

"This comes first!"

^lost^

"I am so stiff," Luvia stretched. "You want to walk around while Rin gets the rental and sets it up with the tracking spell? You can act as the native guide and show me the sights." She asked Shirou as they exited Fuyuki airport, hugging his arm to her chest.

It was a small regional airport, and you walked pretty much straight from the concourse out to the baggage claim area. And except for a pair of ads from the local bank, all the posters were of local points of (very limited) interest. It felt almost homey.

"Back off, Edelfelt." Rin stormed over, "we're here on business."

Luvia role her eyes, but followed Rin as she continued on to the car rental desk. "What's the largest car you have?" Rin demanded.

"We have a Ford Expedition," the sales woman behind the desk typed a few thing into her computer and then turned the monitor so that Rin could see the costs for that model.

Luvia gave a low whistle, "You have the budget for that?"

Rin's left eyebrow spasmed. "Do you have anything a little cheaper?" She asked sweetly. After a very stressful half hour, Rin finally waved them over to the parking lot, leaving Luvia behind to deal with the paperwork. It served her right for teasing her about Shirou.

"OK, this will do," Rin got into the passenger seat of the Toyota and in the space of five minutes assembled the tracking spell.

Shirou watched over her shoulder. He was impressed with how fast she got everything set up. "That's a neat spell."

Rin glanced sideways at him as an unexpected jolt of deja vu ran through her.

^lost^

((flashback))

A high school aged Rin slammed open the door to Shirou's shed / magical sanctum. "Shirou! I got my familiars to follow Issei!"

Rin was positively bouncing. Even through her real personality was more open then her 'school idol' persona, this level of excitement was rare for her, "I sensitized them by using Issei's notebook in casting the spell. I sent them off last night. This morning, they tailed him back to school!"

Shirou smiled as he put down his latest experiment. "That's great, though Issei might not agree."

"It's not like I used them to spy on him. That's why I had to wait until school to know if the spell had worked."

"You're a good person, Rin." Shirou stood up and gave Rin a quick one armed hug, causing the Tohsaka heir to look away so that Shirou wouldn't see the blush, "I can return his notebook, if you give it to me."

((now))

Rin scowled as she felt herself blush. It had been years since she had gotten that excited about new magic. It was even longer since she had had an appreciative audience. "Get in the car," she growled. She didn't need this right now.

As Shirou opened the door for Alberto and Megumi to get into the car, something caught his eye. He stopped and pulled up the young enforcer's sleeve. "Rin, come take a look at this."

"What?" Alberto asked as Rin twisted in her seat to see what Shirou was pointing to.

She glanced over and paled. "Oh, shit."

"What?" Albert repeated, getting nervous.

"That's a Command Seal, like the ones used in the Heaven's Feel ritual."

"What.." Alberto began, "I read about that - don't the winners get a wish?"

"But there is no way that could be starting up again. The Grail system can't recharge that fast." Shirou replied to Rin, completely ignoring Alberto.

"We'll deal with it after," Rin ground out, "the Heaven's Feel is a disaster, but our current pproblem is worse." Rin climbed into the drivers seat and stepped on the gas. Megumi quickly snapped her seat belt into place as the car jack rabbited out of the parking spot.

"Um, Rin, are you certain the detector is working right?" Luvia pointed to the contraption that was resting on her lap. The pointer needle had started out pointing solidly south, but after a couple of miles, it was starting to oscillate back and forth. It even did a one eighty.

Rin peered over towards the passenger seat to examine her working. "Eyes on the road!" Megumi almost shrieked from the back, before looking over Luvia's shoulder. "I don't see anything wrong with the spell. Do you want me to cast a tracker as well?" This wasn't her forte, but maybe a different (less accurate) spell might work better.

"No. I was afraid of this. Fuyuki is on a major lei line node. The portal must have gotten tangled in one the lei lines, turning the entire city into a portal. If we don't seal it up soon, this could turn into a major disaster."

"Head for Ryuudo," Shirou interrupted. "We can work our way out from there."

"No, we can use my house. That way we won't have to deal with prying eyes." As Rin steered towards the upscale neighborhood of Fuyuki, the foreigners - Luvia and Alberto – spent the time rubber necking. While this situation was serous, mages got used to life and death situation, to the point of being a little blasé.

"That's the high school were Rin and I went," Shirou pointed out to Luvia, who had at some point found time to switch back into one of her signature dresses, making her look like a 19th century ditsy blond. And as usual, she was hamming that role up to eleven.

Rin scowled at how chummy Luvia was getting with Shirou. Not that she cared. It really wasn't her business. "That brings back memories. I wonder what happened to Taiga. Is she still teaching here?" Rin interrupted as she turned past the athletic field to head down towards her old neighborhood.

There was a flash and the sound of steel on steel from over the fence.

"What.." Somebody landed on the road in front of them. Rin stomped on the brakes, but he was gone in an instant, leaping away before the car reached him. At the same time, a volley of arrows slammed down into the street where he had been a moment ago, one piercing the car's roof with titanic force. Tohsaka lost control, and the vehicle spun out of control into a telephone post.

Shirou immediately leaped out, a pair of swords in hand. He had almost a hundred empowered swords – noble phantasms, or swords with a long history of use – etched into his soul, but he chose plain, forgettable swords with no legacy to them. They sufficed for somebody like him, and it took less effort.

"Shirou!" He whirled around at the cry, his heart leaping into his throat. Rin was facing off against a woman with long purple hair that moved like it was being whipping in a wind. The woman gave Rin a cursory glance before leaping aside as a man in gold armor wielding a pair of bronze swords attacked her. They were obviously Servants from how fast they moved. Megumi yanked Alberto out of the car on the far side of the battle just as the woman fired another barrage of arrows and leaped away.

The swordsman followed after her. Neither Servant spared the mages so much as a glance.

"Rin! I need help!" Alberto called out. He was collapsed against the side of the ruined SUV, holding Megumi as she bled profusely, an arrow protruding from her abdomen. There was a green miasma rising off the arrow, and it seemed to twist on its own.

Shirou raced over, sliding to a halt by the wounded magus. As he took in the situation, Rin followed more cautiously, making sure no other attackers were lurking in the shadows.

"Rin, do you still have that healing spell?" Shirou asked as he got ready to pull out the arrow.

"Yes. Do it."

As Shirou broke the fletchings off and then yanked out the arrow, Rin dangled a large pendant over Megumi, activating the spell.

A gentle light suffused the other Magus as Rin began to chant an Aria. Rin glanced at the wound and chanted faster, more urgently.

Nothing happened.

As sweat began to form on her brow, Rin began again. Luvia cast a quick bounded Field to keep bystanders away while she worked.

After the third repetition, Rin stopped.

"It's not working. The arrow must be enchanted."

Shirou used structural grasping on the arrow. His spell worked poorly on anything that wasn't a sword, but it was sufficient. "You're right - it's magically poisoned. It's paralyzing her," He pronounced with a sense of finality. Megumi's breathing had become labored, and her skin was turning stiffer, less yielding.

They had mere seconds before she stopped breathing all together. "Luvia – cast a containment – I'm going to try something." Rin began another incantation, with Luvia assisting to contain the magic – without a pentagram it was difficult to make sure the magical energy went where it was needed. She began another chant, this one in old Aramaic, all gutturals that she none the less pronounced precisely.

Finally Rin lowered her arm. "This is the best I can do." Megumi's skin had a hard, plasticky appearance, and she had stopped breathing. "She's in a 'temporally suspended' state. That will keep the poison from doing any more damage to her."

"How long will that last?" Alberto asked.

"If the spell is not disturbed, a couple of weeks. That will give us time to resolve the current problem and then take the time to research the poison. Though if we can capture the archer, they may know an antidote as well."

Alberto nodded his agreement, for want of any other options. "In the mean time, we need a base of operations." He didn't want to think about what would happen if they didn't manage to get an antidote.

As Shirou finished reinforcing the car back into shape. Rin got back in, "My house isn't far."

The rest of the drive was more subdued.

^lost^

Kotomine Kirei watched the team of magi pile into the beat up automobile and drive off in the direction of the Tohsaka mansion. He couldn't hear what they were saying, as his familiars were fairly limited in their abilities, but he could see that the leader looked remarkably like Tokiomi. A slow smile spread across his face _'She mus__t__ be __a Tohsaka.'_An idea formed in his head.

He looked over at the other desk in the hotel room that they were operating out of. The room was cramped, and Tokiomi had been complaining that he couldn't get any sleep on the cheap bed. "Tokiomi, we should switch to operating from your house. I scouted it with my familiars, and it appears uninhabited." He pointed to the mirror that was reflecting what his other familiar was seeing. This particular familiar was perched in a tree, and it had a good view of the back of the Tohsaka mansion. "I am saddened to say that the Tohsaka line must have died out," he added with false sorrow.

He knew he shouldn't do this, but he was bored, and such close proximity to Tokiomi had begun to grate on his nerves.

The older magus looked over at the images his apprentice was showing him. "Huh. Aoi was always delicate." He sighed. It was no surprise she couldn't make it on her own without him to help her. He was mildly chagrined that he hadn't thought to check on her when he realized that he had been pulled forward through time, but he was a magus, and True Magic came first.

And it's not like she had produced any children. At this rate he would have to divorce her, or have an affair (in order to produce an heir,of course. Not because he wanted to).

Tokiomi inspected the image of his erstwhile home, "It's still a risk, but I hate being stuck in this tiny room, without any tools. Lets do it." His face broke into a smile as he patted Kotomine on the back. "That was good thinking. I'll send Saber to stand guard. You go hire us a cab." Besides, it was HIS house. And if he was the last Tohsaka, he should act like it.

^lost^

"Wow, your family really has money," Alberto commented as they lowered Megumi into the bed in one of the guest rooms of the Tohsaka mansion. The building was slightly overgrown on the outside and dusty on the inside, but the furniture was all there, covered in white drop clothes (as if Rin had just gone away for a long vacation).

"Not necessarily. Real estate is cheaper out here than in Tokyo.," Shirou responded, "When I sold my dad's place, it.."

"You sold your house?" Rin interrupted, scandalized. She wasn't certain why it bothered her. She knew that just because she was back in Fuyuki with Shirou that things weren't going to go back to the way they used to be. Everything was different. She glanced up at Shirou. But it would be nice... She quickly clamped down on that thought.

"Yeah, to pay for my travels," he shrugged. "You know what they say, you can never go back. So I figured I would use it to fund the future. Anyway, it didn't net me as much as I expected."

As the group reconvened in the dining room, Luvia pulled the drops clothes off and piled them off to one side. "You probably got ripped off."

"Maybe. I was in a rush to get started," Shirou shrugged. "I'll go make us some tea, at least." He headed into the kitchen. "You know, we should buy some food if we are going to be here for a couple days – take out is really bad for you."

Luvia glanced over at her friend, "So you were just schoolmates, but he knows were you keep the tea?"

"We need to summon our own Servant," Alberto interrupted before Rin could respond, annoyed at how the others didn't seem at all concerned about Megumi. They were acting as if there was no rush. But god only knew how long it would take them to discover the cure once they had dealt with the rift. They needed to get it done NOW. "Do you have a work room I can use?" He pointed to his command seal, by way of explanation. He wasn't in the mood for banter.

"Is that really a good idea?" Luvia asked.

"I don't think we have any choice," Alberto was almost yelling. "We need to resolve this as quickly as possible, or are you forgetting Megumi?"

"You're a magus," Rin snapped, "You know that if you don't do magic right, it can have catastrophic consequences. That is why we are here, in case you forgot. Because a spell went wrong. And summoning a Servant isn't like ordering take out."

Luvia nodded, "The stories you told of how your Servant ended up betraying and almost killing you don't exactly encourage me to summon one."

Rin sighed and rubbed her head. Her feelings on Saber were mixed at best, "I remember. Servants can be a lot of trouble - they all have their own agenda. And anyways, there shouldn't be another Grail war yet: I suspect the portal is messing with the grail system, potentially destabilizing it. I don't even know if the Grail will materialize or not. If it doesn't, then the war will be over nothing, and a Servant is going to be way more trouble than they are worth."

"I think it's worth the risk. We know that there are Servants brawling in the streets, and it's a matter of time before we encounter one again. It will be helpful to have the extra firepower, if things go pear shaped." Shirou called from the kitchen. Maybe some Servants were trouble, but Saber hadn't caused any problems, except a little at the end. The rest of the time she had been really nice.

"Pear shaped? You mean like Rin's hips?" Luvia asked, puzzled.

Without pausing, Rin scooped up a cushion from the sofa as she walked towards Alberto and threw it at the blond girl. "Come this way, you can use the study. And I have some notes there that you should review. You'll be summoning without a catalyst, so lets hope there is a servant that is a good match for your personality."

^lost^

"Open, shut." Alberto injected prana into the inscribed pentagram. "Open, shut." He was using the ritual that Rin had developed for the Fifth Grail war. It wasn't a perfect match for the current conditions, but it should suffice.

It was crowded in the study with everybody watching the ritual. Luvia and Rin took spots right by the summoning circle, so as to get a good view. Shirou was forced to stand off to the side, by the window. Which was fine – he didn't have much interest in the summoning magic: he knew it was way beyond his skill level. He had come to accept his limitations, both on his magic and on what he could accomplish in life.

As he glanced out the window, his eyebrows pulled together in a puzzlement – two figures had just turned onto the Tohsaka property. "Um, Rin, did your bounded field detect anything?"

The summoning circle began to glow as something formed in it. At the same time, one of them men outside became agitated and made a gesture.

"We have guests!" Shirou pulled on his runed coat.


	3. Chapter 3

Yes, Kirei and Tokiomi are from an alternative time-line / dimension, where Tokiomi doesn't have any children

CHAPTER

"I thought you said it was abandoned," Tokiomi was annoyed. He had been looking forwards to relaxing in his own house.

Kirei shrugged, "When I checked, it was." He paused and cocked his head, "Do you feel that – I think another Master has set up shop in here. They must have thought an abandoned mansion would make a good base." The air was filled with a magical energy.

Tokiomi didn't bother replying, "Lord Gilgamesh, please investigate. And if the intruders are summoning a Servant, kill them." One did not command Gilgamesh. One asked, politely. Or one died, gruesomely.

Gilgamesh was incorporeal, but his voice was still clear, "Oh, there is no need to rush. It will be more sportsmanlike to wait for the Master to finish the summoning."

Tokiomi ground his teeth. Gilgamesh was always difficult to deal with. But his raw power made up for it, "There – the ritual has activated."

A man in gold armor, with a pair of bronze swords strpped to his back faded into view as he leaped for the second floor window.

"Don't cause too much property damage!" Tokiomi called after him.

^lost^

Rin watched as a familiar figure materialized out of the summoning circle – it was Cu Chulainn, the slightly annoying Lancer who had ended up helping them in the end, in the previous Grail war.

"I am your Master," Alberto pronounced just as Shirou yelled "We have company!"

Shirou threw himself across the room, a bow materializing in his hands as the window exploded inwards, showering them with glass.

Before the revealed Servant could even land, three arrows sped towards him, but he casually swatted them from the air, like one might shoo a fly.

"The mongrels of this day have much to learn about hospitality and fairness." He glanced towards Lancer (for that was obviously Cu Chulainn's class again). "I challenge you to a duel!"

Lancer grinned feraly "Challenge accepted!" And leaped at Saber / Gilgamesh.

Immediately, the room was filled with a deadly maelstrom of flashing blades. The Servants leaped at each other, pushing off of the walls and any furniture that got in their way as they tried to make the best use of the constricted space.

Luvia yanked Alberto out of the way of an errant bookcase. The battle was too intense for the Magi to keep track of - they retreated out into the hallway, trying to put some space between themselves and the zone of death.

"My house!" Rin watched in horror.

Shirou leaped out the window. He reinforced his legs to land safely and charged the two men. One of them must be the Master.

^lost^

Tokiomi frowned at the young man charging him across HIS lawn, after having leaped out through the smashed window of HIS house. The fact that it was his own Servant that had smashed the window was no conciliation. If only Kotomine hadn't lost his servant, this would be easier. Or if he wasn't so bloody tired from sleeping on that spongy hotel bed. He raised his walking stick, and intoned a spell. Shirou was halfway to the intruders when a swarm of stiletto shaped darts materialized, flying towards him.

Shirou leaped straight up 20 feet, above the barrage, and projected a sword. But as he landed, he was confronted by the younger man wielding a handful of Black Keys.

^lost^

Rin pulled her gaze away from the cyclone of property destruction that had now spilled into the adjoining bedroom to see where Shirou had gone. Her expression hardened as she saw that the idiot was locked in battle with a skilled martial artist while the other intruder was sniping at him. So far, Shirou's enchanted long coat was deflecting the spells, but the magus was mostly using weaker spells for fear of hitting his partner.

Rin immediately leaped after him, releasing a stream of Gandr spheres at the magus that was trying to line up a shot on her Shirou.

In the distance, police sirens began to wail.

Tokiomi dodged the Gandr attack from the woman magus. As he did, the front door of the mansion burst open, revealing a second woman, this one a blond, and she also cast Gandr.

Tokiomi glanced at his apprentice: Kirei was being hard pressed by the swordsman. Despite Kirei's impressive training as an Executor, the young man was holding his own. Tokiomi wasn't a fighter, so he couldn't tell who had the advantage, but he could tell that Kirei was being cautious _'Lord Gilgamesh – we need to retreat. There are too many enemies'_

The gold swordsman burst out of the broken window, scooping up his master as well as Kotomine before bounding away.

Lancer sauntered over to his new Master, who looked the worse for wear (but seemed desperate not to show it). "So, you never mentioned – what is the wish that you are fighting for?"

Alberto carefully sat down on an undamaged chair. "My wish is to heal the woman I love."

Lancer broke into a huge grin, "Ah, a man after my own heart. We will be a great team." He leered slightly as Luvia walked into the room. The blond rolled her eyes.

^lost^

"Did that look like Kotomine Kirei to you?" Rin asked Shirou as they bound up Alberto's knee. It wasn't broken, but he wouldn't be able to run for a couple of days. Luvia was outside, dealing with (ie hypnotizing) the cops.

"Maybe. I never really spent much time with him." Shirou picked up some papers, "How are you holding up? I know this old place means a lot to you."

Rin shrugged as she stood up and stepped out into the hall to get some distance from the worst of the wreckage. "I'm ok. It's just that this house is all I really have from my parents. And unlike you, I'm not ready to cut all ties with the past." She looked at the mess and sighed. This was not how she had pictured coming home, but at least Shirou was here, supporting her as always. "But I think it would be best if we operated out of someplace else, for the time being."

Shirou nodded, "I figured as much. I already called Issei, and he says that we can stay in the guest house." Rin looked a little shocky from almost losing her home, so Shirou put an arm on her back, for emotional support. Only.

"Wait, up in Ryuudo?" Rin asked surprised, "And how did you convince him of that?" Rin decided not to say anything about the hand on her back. Because she didn't know what to say.

"Yes, up in Ryuudo. It seems another Grail war is brewing, even if it is a twisted and broken version. There's no reason we can't set ourselves up in the prime real estate this time around. And Issei is a friend."

"You've been in touch?" Rin asked, surprised. She stepped away so that she could give Shirou the full benefit of her glare.

"Yeah, I drop by Fuyuki a couple of time a year, and he puts me up. It helps to remind me what I'm fighting for." Though lately, it hadn't been working so well – he wasn't really making any difference in peoples lives. Shirou glanced at Rin. Maybe he needed to expand who he was fighting for? He restrained a snort. _'Yeah, right.' _

"What about Fujimura? Did you visit her as well?" Rin's question came out short and clipped.

"Yes, but she's not in Fuyuki anymore – she go married a couple of years ago and they now live up near Tokyo."

Rin paused to consider that. "Married, huh." She hadn't really considered that as an option for herself. She'd probably end up with some loveless arranged marriage just to keep the Tohsaka bloodline alive.

"Yeah, He's an engineer working for Sony. Their apartment is really small."

"You never visited me." Rin was surprised at how accusatory her voice came out. At how hurt she was. It was such a trivial thing.

Shirou shrugged, "You made it clear that you didn't want me hanging around, interfering with your experiments."

[[End of senior year]]

"I am sorry, I don't have time. I am flying to England to apply to the Clock Tower next month. I need to perfect my demonstration." Rin gave Shirou a small manufactured smile as she walked past him.

Shirou nodded. This was the third time in a row that Rin was too busy to spend time hanging out. They really hadn't spent any time together since the end of the Grail war. It was a different reason every time, but Shirou wasn't as clueless as he used to be. The message was pretty clear.

[[now]]

"No, I was just busy," Rin muttered before looking back up, the usual fire in her eyes again. "Go get the car. We'll load Megumi into the back and go." She glanced over to where Lancer was chatting with his master.

Rin sauntered over to Cu Chulainn, "So, do you have any memory of being summoned in the previous Holy Grail war?"

Lancer eyed the rather attractive woman in front of him. She seemed to be the leader of the group, which was also a plus in his book, "No, which is too bad, if you were involved. It is always a shame to forget a beautiful woman."

Rin rolled her eyes, _'He's going to be corporeal for just a couple of days, and he wants to get into my pants? He's as shallow as Alberto.'_ But outwardly she simpered, "we had a good relationship – working relationship, that is – last time. I hope to repeat it." Alberto had a Servant, Lancer was a wild card and Shirou... was whatever he was. She felt like she was drowning in a morass of ambiguity. She needed to get control of the situation, fast. She smiled coquettishly at the Servant.

Shirou watched the interaction as he headed out to get the van. Rin had been stiff and formal for this whole trip (even if the others hadn't realized it – her public persona was very polished). He didn't know what he had expected when he discovered that they would be working together. Maybe he had hoped that they could go back to being something like friends?

The whole point of his fight to be a hero of justice was to make the world a better, safer place for his friends, but who were these mythical 'friends'? Did anybody even care?

As they set off in the SUV, it felt very crowded, even though Lancer rode on top of the car, incorporeally. Alberto was tense as a guitar string, almost vibrating despite his injuries. Rin was mourning the past (her mansion) and fearing the future. Luvia was the only one who wasn't doused in doom and gloom, but she was friends with Rin, so she ended up reflecting the Tohsaka's mood.

When they were almost to the shrine, Shirou pointed to a supermarket, "Hey, can you stop here? The guest cottages don't come with any food." Seeing Rin hesitate, he added, "Don't worry, Issei is expecting you." He needed to get away from that atmosphere (and from Rin), even if for a little bit.

^lost^

"Where's Shirou?" Issei asked as the vehicle pulled over into the guest parking spot. The Ryuudo shrine had expanded markedly in the past 10 years, building the afore mentioned guest cottages as well as adding a pair of junior priests and a second function hall. With all the strange goings on in Fuyuki, religiosity was on the rise. Or at least a willingness to leave offerings as bribes to the gods.

Rin got out of the car, "he stopped off to pick up some food supplies. He said you were expecting us."

"No, I was expecting him. I most definitely was not expecting **you**." Issei said acerbically. He looked over the other passengers, including a comatose Megumi, "And what is wrong with her?" He turned back to Rin, "I didn't sign up to play host to you and your friends. This shrine is open to all decent people, but I am not certain you qualify."

"Now you see here!" Luvia came to her friends defense, "Rin is decent, hard working.."

"A hard working what?" Issei asked, "What exactly **is** her profession? And what is wrong with the woman in back?"

Rin was beginning to sweat bullets. Hypnotism only worked for so long, and it wasn't really good for the subject. Shirou would kill her if she let anything happen to his friend, even if the said friend was a nosy, judgmental ass.

"Rin is a student," Luvia extemporized, glancing at Rin for a cue as to whether it was time to pull the old 'head mojo'. "And Megumi just gets motion sick easily, so she took some Benadryl to knock herself out."

Alberto was still in a lot of pain. His cracked rib had shifted in the drive, and he couldn't take a deep breath. He didn't have time for this melodrama – he cast hypnosis, "You will go back to your quarters. You will forget everything you see here."

Issei looked puzzled, "Was that a hypnosis spell? I've never felt one before."

"...shit" Alberto pronounced.

"Shirou gave me a ward for that sort of thing years ago."

"You know about magic?" Rin started.

"Well, yes. You don't think Shirou would keep a secret like that from his friends?" Issei smirked. "Make yourselves at home. Does your friend – Megumi was it? - need anything? I assume she is under some sort of enchantment?" At the head shakes, Issei nodded and left them to finish unloading, a small self satisfied smirk barely visible on his face. Tohsaka deserved that, for being such a witch to Shirou back in high school. Shirou might have forgiven her, but he hadn't.

Rin ground her teeth so hard that she was surprised the others couldn't hear the noise. She took several deep breaths, and almost had her temper under control when Luvia poked her. "I think I like this Issei."

Rin smiled, "I hope Shirou hurries back." _'So I can kill him.'_

^lost^

Shirou was feeling much better as he exited the supermarket, the fixings for dinner in the bags slung over his shoulder. As he walked, he tried to puzzle out why Rin annoyed him so much. He had worked with people who were far more objectionable – people who were amoral or even criminals. Rin wasn't any of that – she was a decent person, someone who he respected. But working with her – just being around her – was making him tense. He wasn't paying much attention as he walked, but Shirou's' awareness was always high. And within a few steps he realized that something was off. He looked up and down the street before he spotted the purple haired businesswoman.

Her posture was wrong. She was wearing a woman's black suit, with a miniskirt, but she had an aura that.. Shirou's eyes got huge, and he dropped the shopping bags as he ran forward.

"Sakura?"

The woman turned to face him, and the aura of menace faded. She did bear a remarkable resembles to his first girlfriend.

But Sakura was dead.

"Shirou?"

Shirou wasn't certain how to respond. Telling her that she should be dead was tactless. But he couldn't help himself - his hand reached out to her. As he did, she slapped his hand down angrily, "How dare you! You abandoned me. You left me alone in that hell hole, and now you think you can traipse right back in and be all friendly again?"

"Sakura, I never abandoned you. You died."

"What?"

Light dawned on Shirou, "You must have come in through the rift – your in a different reality than the one you started in."

Some of the hostility drained out of Sakura's posture. "How do I now you are telling the truth?" His statement was patently absurd, but much of the Moonlit World operated on absurdities.

"Sakura, it's me. Would I lie to you" Shirou asked, hoping that the Shirou in Sakura's reality was similar to him. He should be - Shirou couldn't imagine how his values could be any different. "Did anything strange happen to you in the past two days, when you felt an abrupt disconnect or something?" Shirou was fishing – he had no idea what it would feel to go through a portal.

Sakura squinted at him before relaxing and nodding. No matter where she went, she always had a sense of the Greater Grail under Ryuudo. When she had walked out of Fuyuki airport, that had.. changed. She nodded, "Ok. I will trust in you one more time. So what now?"

"So now, how about you join a group of my.. friends for dinner?" Shirou went back to pick up the abandoned grocery bags.

^lost^

Rin had gotten everything set up: bedrooms assigned (Alberto and Shirou would share the smaller one, Luvia and Rin got the larger. Megumi was on a trundle bed in the closet sized room in back). Alberto was setting up the wards, and she had sent Luvia to get fresh towels from Issei (if she liked him so much, she could be the liaison and hoof it over to the main building), and her portal detection spell was running on the writing desk.

All was right in the world.

She was just turning, inspecting her new domain, when the front door opened and Shirou walked in. Rin smiled - she was planning on giving him an earful about Issei, but that could wait until after dinner.

Her smile froze when the woman walked in behind him. "Sakura?" She whispered.

"YOU!" Sakura hissed. She whirled at Shirou. "I knew I shouldn't have trusted you. You're in league with THAT woman." The air temperature around her dropped precipitously, and frost started to form on her jacket.

"Sakura, don't do it!" Shirou stepped in front of her.

Sakura paused. She should have known. She could never trust Rin. No matter what incarnation or reality, that woman would always betray her, would always poison Shirou against her. But still, Shirou was Shirou. The heavy magic aura dissipated and Sakura ran out the door.

"What.. was that?"

Shirou glanced between the fleeing Sakura and the shocked Rin. "Are you ok?" He went over to Rin.

Rin pulled herself together, "Sakura.. we should go after.."

"Rin, focus. We are here to prevent a major catastrophe. I want to find Sakura as much as you, but we need to prioritize. We can find her after we have averted the apocalypse."

"No, you don't understand." Rin pushed away from Shirou. She was half way to the door before she stopped. "You're right." She turned back and slumped into a chair facing the tracking spell, dropping her head onto the table.

After getting dinner started, Shirou went to check up on Megumi. Not that he could do much, but he felt guilty - he hadn't been able to protect her. Peering into her room, he saw Alberto slumped awkwardly, dozing in a chair by her side.

Shirou shook his head with a cynical smile. _'He still young and idealistic.' _That level of dedication always ended badly.

After they ate a simple but well prepared dinner, Luvia went off to make some more of her potions, and Alberto went for a walk around the cottage, to stretch out his healing muscles.

"I wish that stupid thing would go off already." Rin threw her hands up in frustration as she stood watch over her tracer.

"The mana from the Lei line is still interfering?" Shirou walked up to stand next to her.

"Yes." Rin turned towards Shirou, "Well, it turns out you did have time to go after Sakura."

Shirou sighed, "Yeah, but I learned that you can't accomplish everything. You need to make compromises." He paused and glanced at Rin, " Actually, you were the one who was always insisting that I prioritize. I thought you would be pleased."

"Well, I'm not." She snapped angrily, "I'm supposed to be the pragmatic one. You were the idealist. That was what I really liked about you. You inspired me. And all of your friends." Rin went to sit down on the steps leading up to the cottage and looked out into the night sky. From up here, with the trees blocking the view of the city, it almost looked like they were out in the wilderness. After moment, Shirou sat down on the steps next to Rin. They sat without talking for some time, just watching the stars. Slowly, the tension eased out of Rin. The trees, the stars, Shirou.. For the first time in years, she felt at peace. "Have you kept in touch with anybody else from high school?"

"Mostly just Issei," Shirou turned to face Rin, putting his back to the railing. "Why are you so concerned about Sakura? You never told me how you knew her." Shirou was confused by the outpouring of emotion from the normally stoic Tohsaka.

Rin shrugged and sat silently for a long time, leaning against the other railing. Alberto walked by, casting a worried glance towards Megumi's room. _'It would be nice to have somebody dedicated to me like that.'_

"She was, is, my sister."

Shirou turned in surprise, "and you never saw fit to mention this to me?"

"It never seemed relevant. She was dead. And talking about Sakura was painful."

Shirou nodded as he recalled conversations that had stuck with him, for their oddity. "So instead, you tried to manipulate me into telling you about her, without ever admitting that she was important to you." Shirou shook his head, "you need to stop doing that."

Rin glared at him, "and since when do tell me what to do?"

"If I don't who will?" Shirou smirked. "Seriously, it will only push your friends away." Much like her 'school idol' persona had in high school. He glanced over at Rin. He hadn't bantered with anybody like this in a very long time. Even with Issei, he had to be a little guarded. But while Rin complained about everything, she didn't actually mean any of it. He could say pretty much anything to her and she would listen.

"You aren't angry that I never told you? About Sakura?"

Shirou shrugged. "You keep so many things private, that I am used to it. And I always suspected there was something connecting you to Sakura."

Rin nodded, not certain how to respond. The fact that Shirou accepted that she was keeping secrets from him bothered her. A lot. But the fact that he accepted her, despite the fact that she was effectively lying to him, was.. "Shirou, You should have come with me, to the Clock Tower."

"I though you wanted to focus on your studies." Shirou turned to look at Rin.

"I did. I do. But that doesn't mean I don't, didn't want you to come with me." Rin wasn't certain what she was saying, "I mean, it doesn't have to be one or the other, and I don't, I mean I would like.."

And that was when the tracking spell went off.


	4. Chapter 4

[[earlier]]

Sakura stormed down the hill, furious at herself for trusting Shirou. He always talked like he meant well, but then he would do something like this, taking her for granted. She wasn't going to be running, serving him hand and foot, as he ignored her. And Rin.. she always got what she wanted, whether it was a real father, or a home, or Shirou. She was so caught up in her internal monologue that she almost slammed into a teen walking the other way. She was about to step around him and keep on her way when he decided to speak up.

"I'm sorry, I didn't see you. But I honestly don't mind walking into a hottie like you."

"You!" Sakura's eyes focused on the speaker. It was Shinji. A teen-aged Shinji, just like she recalled him when he was making her life a living hell. All the pain she had left behind came boiling up. Everything she had walled up when she had left home.

"Me," Shinji smiled, only for the smile to fade in the face of the cold menace radiating from the attractive older woman in front of him. And there was something... off about her. "Rider. Deal with her!" He squeaked.

As the blindfolded woman in a biker jacket materialized at his side, Sakura leaped backwards. "Archer. Kill him." And an identical woman, except armed with a bow and with wildly whipping hair, appeared in a neighboring tree. Sakura took a defensive stance as she waited to see what Rider's response would be.

As the bow-woman reached for an arrow, Rider leaped at her, spiked chain lashing forwards. Archer leaped away, firing off a trio of arrows, which Rider deflected with her chain. The two servants battled across the neighborhood, as Archer tried to gain some distance to use her bow, and Rider kept darting after her. The two were very evenly matched, so they covered a lot of area without either one getting an advantage.

Shinji looked from where his Servant was fighting towards the crazy (but hot. Really, really hot) business woman, who was now standing, relaxed, a little ways away. She looked strangely familiar. He knew he should know her, but it was very difficult figuring out who she was, as his eyes kept dropping to her cleavage of their own volition.

"Do you like what you see?" Sakura purred as she sashayed towards the teen.

"Um," Shinji licked his lips and glanced quickly up at her face. He was certain that he should be running away right now. But she wasn't carrying any weapons or casting any spells. And his eyes were locked onto her (ample) chest. Top button was undone.

It was like a cobra with a sparrow. He knew she was dangerous, but he couldn't think of what to do.

Shinji didn't realize how close she had gotten until her hand reached out behind his head and her lips pressed into his. The shock, confusion and teenage hormones prevented him from calling for his Servant. And it was the most erotic kiss he had ever had. He felt himself becoming aroused, as at the same time his vision blurred and became tunnel like.

He didn't know how long the kiss went on, but he began to feel cold. He tried to push the woman away, but his arms were too weak – he couldn't even lift them. He would have panicked, but he lacked the energy for anything more than a mild sensation of wrongness. Slowly, everything faded to gray as Sakura drained his life force out through the kiss.

Sakura dropped the corpse onto the ground and bent over to retrieve the book of the False Attendant.

Rider hadn't realize that her surrogate master was in trouble until an unfamiliar voice pronounced, _'Servant __Medusa__. I am your Master. Come to me.'_

A moment later, both Medusas – Rider and Archer – were standing at Sakura's side.

^lost^

"What do you mean, we have to go back to the Tohsaka mansion?" Luvia demanded. She had just gotten back from scouting out the shrine (and chatting with Issei, who was a very nice gentleman), only to discover that Rin was herding everybody back out towards the car.

"No, we're going to Fuyuki park. The portal is lodged in the Lei line that runs under it." The park was actually only a couple of blocks away from her house. And from the Matou mansion. _'I wonder if Sakura is staying there.'_ Rin shook her head to clear it of distraction. _'Shirou's right – we'll fix things with Sakura after__wards__.' _Even though that was the rational decision, something inside her twisted at the thought.

Shirou wasn't happy about the location – he had bad memories of the park – actually, it was where all his memories began, with the fire. He was also confused about what had just happened with Rin. Was it just wishful thinking, or had she been implying that she wanted to try having a relationship, or something? He glanced over at the Tohsaka. He should ask her, but now was not the time.

"Alberto will stay back here and keep watch over Megumi, while we will go check it out."

"Don't worry Master, I won't embarrass you - I won't put the moves on the ladies until after the fighting is done." Lancer grinned cockily, eliciting a weak smile from his Master. Alberto was not happy to be left behind, but he knew that he needed to rest.

Luvia rolled her eyes, "In that case you better go for Rin, because I will kick your Casanova ass if you don't focus on your business." Lancer had picked up Alberto's personality and refined it to the point that it was starting to grate. Luvia liked chasing guys. She didn't much appreciate it when the tables were turned.

Rin just smiled (though it came out as more of a grimace). In the last war, she had been too young to appreciate Lancer's teasing. She glanced at Shirou, to see if he was paying attention to the byplay, or if he was still dwelling on that verbal diarrhea she had been spilling out a few moments ago. "Let's go."

She palmed several antacids and slammed them down when nobody was looking.

^lost^

The park was as dead as ever. The trees were bare of leaves, as if it was the middle of winter instead of early fall. The ground was hard packed dirt, since no grass ever grew here.

"Wow. Some park," Luvia mentioned, "All you need is some rusting playground swings and it could pass for an inner city park in any of the worst slums. Seriously, would it cost that much to fertilize a little and maybe water?"

"Bad things happened here," Shirou explained.

"It's cursed," Rin added.

Luvia reached out magically and recoiled, "I.. see" Now that she was paying attention, she could just barely see what looked like heat shimmers rising out of the ground.

"Yeah, and that taint is making it impossible to scry for the portal. It's spreading it out, letting little pieces of the portal manifest all over the park." Rin pointed to the shimmers, "we'll have to get a lot closer to detect the main body of it." She handed her Rube Goldberg contraption to Luvia. "We should split up to cover more territory. I have the detection spell down cold at this point – at this range, I can manage it with just a pair of gems. So you and Shirou take this one and go along the left side of the park, while Lancer and I cover the other side. Whoever find the portal call the others. Don't try to be a hero." Rin was looking at Shirou specifically as she said this last.

As Rin set out, Lancer in tow, Luvia shrugged, "So it's going to be just us, big guy. I search, you keep me alive."

Shirou smiled, "That's my job description: keeping people alive." They set off, with Luvia glancing between the spell and their path.

Shirou walked a few steps back, watching for danger.

"Seriously, thanks for your help. I know Rin will never admit it, but she appreciated what you did in Poland. You saved the mission, and without your help, at least some of us would have died."

Shirou walked on in silence, "I wasn't joking. Helping people is what I do."

"What, like a comic book superhero?" Luvia asked_ 'that would explain Rin's pointed comment about being a hero.'_

"Kind of. I figure if I help people with their problems, it will make the world a safer place for the people I care about."

"Aww, you mean me, don't you?" Luvia asked.

Shirou coughed awkwardly.

They walked in silence for a few minutes. "I don't know what happened between you and Rin back in high school, but don't give up on her. She's not as tough as she thinks she is."

^lost^

The two gems were pulling together with more and more force. Rin was grinning like a tiger on the prowl – she figured the portal was less than a hundred yards away. She was just picking up her pace to head for it when Lancer darted in front of her. "Company!"

The golden clad Saber appeared from nowhere and leaped to the attack, "Let us continue what was so rudely interrupted!"

Lancer smirked, "You're a man after my own heart."

"Yes, that's the plan," Saber replied.

As the two sprang at each other, battling through the treetops, an elegantly dressed gentleman in an old fashioned brown three piece suit and bearing a swagger stick stepped out from the shadows, "Yes, I see. Kirei warned me that a cadet branch of the family had a Master in this war, and that they were looking to establish themselves in Fuyuki so as to take over."

Rin did a double take – the man looked like the photos of her father, back from around the time of the Fourth Grail war. But as she opened her mouth, an array of red gem lights appeared around the other Magus, and she was only just able to throw herself to the side before they blasted fire through the spot where she had been standing.

"Cadet? I'm not some inbred cousin!" That wasn't what Rin had intended to say to the man that might be her father. But in tense situations, she somehow always defaulted to aggression.

^lost^

At the sound of the explosions, Shirou whirled into a fighting crouch, a sword materializing in his hand as he hunted for the source of the sound.

"It's coming from over there." Luvia pointed towards Rin's side of the park. But before Shirou could rush in that direction, a shimmering shard of portal grew larger, and a young woman stepped through. She was all white – her hair and her skin - and she was dressed in a purple winter coat of a style from 50 years ago.

She looked around, surprised, but then she spotted Shirou, "Ah, hello Oni-chan. I expect that this is your doing." She did look like Illyasviel von Einzbern, but all grown up. "I do not know what you expect to accomplish with this stratagem, but it shall not succeed. Berserker, kill him."

A huge man mountain materialized into view. He was dressed in a Greek kilt and carried a jagged piece of stone as a sword. A malevolent rage boiled off of him.

"Can't we discuss this?" Luvia ventured as she yanked Shirou back away from Berserker. The redhead had been caught flat footed by the unexpected aggression from a woman who looked so much like the young magus that had helped train him in the previous Grail war. If it wasn't for her, he wouldn't be who he had become. He probably wouldn't even be alive!

But Shirou recovered quickly, and as the giant stepped in to smash him with the back swing of his massive club-sword, the redhead reinforced himself to the breaking point and ducked to the side, just barely avoiding the car sized slab of stone. _'That's just not fair. He's that big and still that fast?'_

Luvia cast Gandr at the enemy Master, but Illya blocked it with a swarm of little blue bird familiars.

Shirou manged to bring his Projected swords up to block the next attack, but even with partly getting out of the way, it took both swords to stop the massive attack, and they both shattered from the effort.

Shirou recreated his swords in time to stop the next blow, but he had no time for anything except defense. Berserker was hammering him like a freight train with arms.

Luvia glanced over at Shirou, but there was nothing she could do to help - she was barely holding her own against the Master. The albino woman was very casually directing a dozen bird familiars that swooped and spat little pellets of fire. Luvia was forced to dart from tree to tree, trying to keep the trunks between her and the familiars. When she finally saw an opening, she ripped the cover from a potion, splashing it towards the albino magus. A rainbow of light shot out like a spear, but it fell short, cleaving the ground several paces from Illya.

"That was very pretty, but I have outgrown rainbows," Illya directed a flotilla of her birds to burn down the tree that Luvia was hiding behind in a concerted barrage of flaming bird spit.

Luvia swore under her breath as she ran, wishing she had some of her gems. They were so much easier to use than these lame ass potions.

Meanwhile, Shirou tried to skip back to gain a little room, but Berserker kept pressing him, not giving him any room to maneuver. _'I don't __think I can keep this up for much longer.'_ Even with the reinforcement, his body was at its limit. His muscles were burning with the strain, and he was breathing in quick rasping gasps.

"You are not my Oni-chan," the albino magus pronounced suddenly, looking slightly worried. "And the Grail system is acting very strangely. Berserker. We are leaving. I need to investigate this." The servant jumped back from Shirou, and in one smooth motion scooped up his Master and leaped away.

Shirou paused to take a deep breath, his hands on his knees.

"Thank god that she left," Luvia began, but before she could finish her sentence, Shirou pivoted and raced off in the direction of the fighting on the other side of the park.

As Luvia turned to follow, a man wielding an Executor's Black keys intercepted her, "Oh, ho. I think not!"

^lost^

Rin quickly realized that she was a more powerful magus than her opponent, but nevertheless she was having a lot of difficulty: she was hesitant to attack her opponent all out, as he might well be an other dimensional version of her father. But Tokiomi had no such reservations. A cadet family trying to usurp his place was not acceptable. He hadn't slept in days, and he was too tired to make sense of everything that had happened since he had time traveled, but he would figure out the details after he won the Holy Grail war. Right now, he simply needed to establish his dominance.

A swirl of fire leaped out from Tokiomi's walking stick, spiraling out towards his opponent before changing direction like a serpent to follow Rin as she dodged to one side.

Rin retaliated with a spray of Gandr, hoping to incapacitate her opponent without injuring him too much, but he easily dodged the spell.

Meanwhile Saber and Lancer had carried their battle to the adjoining neighborhood, leaping from building to building as both servants attacked with lighting speed.

Rin was again forced to dodge, as she second guessed her choice of attack spell. When she rolled back to her feat, a surprise blast of air caught her in the arm, spinning her around. She tried to recover, but her enemy now had a clear shot at her back as she staggered trying to maintain her footing

"Yaaargh!" Shirou yelled as he recklessly charged the magus about to incinerate Rin. Startled, Tokiomi whirled and unleashed his flame spell at the would-be hero instead of Rin. Shirou didn't have time to dodge, as he had put everything into reaching the magus before he could kill Rin.

Rin watched in horror as the flame leaped at the idiot. "Blitzen" a single bolt of lighting snapped from her out-flung hand, striking Tokiomi squarely in the torso. The bolt fizzled out against his wards as it contacted him, but it still had enough oomph to knock him off of his feet. The fire winked out before it could do more than singe Shirou, who threw himself into a roll on the ground to extinguish the flames.

"You idiot, stay back!"

At the same time, Lancer finally had a clear shot.

"Gae Blog!"

He lunged in for the killing blow, his spear striking Saber in the chest and sinking in to the haft.

But then something odd happened – the image of Gilgamesh fractured and fell to the ground, revealing another, perfectly healthy Gilgamesh underneath. All that was left of that first Gilgamesh was a crushed flower that fluttered to the ground.

Lancer was overbalanced from his attack, so he wasn't prepared when Gilgamesh grabbed the spear and yanked it past him, using it to pivot towards Lancer. Cu Chulainn released his spear, but it was too late – he couldn't quiet dodge the sword that lopped his head off.

The Saber in Gold smiled, "Too bad you did not know about the gift of Utnapishtim." And leaped back towards the park.

As Rin rushed towards Shirou, Saber landed in front of her with a cocky grin. "You have spunk, for a woman. You will make a good slave, once I break you."

Shirou didn't even pause before attacking. Saber was caught flat footed by the unexpected attack from the side - the idea of a mere cur attacking him! And was momentarily forced onto the defensive before retaking the initiative.

Rin glanced from the intense battle between Shirou and Saber to Saber's master, who had regained his feet and was about to unleash another barrage of spells at Shirou's back from an mandala of gems floating in a halo around him. "Blitzvorhang." Rin blasted him with a spell powerful enough to overcome any protections he might have.

The sheet of lightning struck Saber's master, burning through his protective spells, until several bolts struck true. As Tokiomi collapsed to the ground in a smoking ruin, Saber jerked back, finally giving Shirou a moment to recover. But before Shirou could take advantage of the opening, Saber leaped away.

^lost^

Luvia ducked under Kirei's swing and gave him another glancing blow. If the Executor wasn't armed with his Black Keys, she would have demolished him long ago, but instead it was turning into a grueling endurance match. Both combatants were panting. Fighting for your life was the most tiring form of exercise possible. And you couldn't slacken your pace, not if you wanted to stay alive. Which is why when Saber swooped down and carried the Executor off in a single bound, Luvia just stood gasping.

^lost^

Illya slipped off of the shoulder of Berserker as they approached the source of the irregular Grail emanations. She enjoyed riding on Hercules' shoulder – even though her current body was adult sized, she had spent too much of her life as short – but she now wanted to be on her own two feet in case Berserker had to chastise whomever was interfering with the ritual.

She looked around, puzzled. Across the street was a dilapidated mansion set back from the street. The bounded field around it had driven all the neighbors out, so that it was surrounded by overgrown lots on either side to the point that it too looked abandoned. It certainly didn't have any connection to the Grail. Or at least it shouldn't. But nevertheless, it was pulling at her the way the Grail under Ryuudo did, but out of sync. It had to be some magus, hiding out in the ruins and trying to co-opt the Heavens Feel ritual for their own ends.

"Ok, Berserker, lets go say hello." Illya didn't bother disabling the alarmed bounded field - it would serve as a doorbell to announce her presence as she headed up the walkway. No matter who this Magus was, he would either apologize or Hercules would crush him like Lutefisk. Illya was only half way to the front door when a decrepit old man, wrinkled like a prune, stepped out of the shadows.

"Ah, who might you be?" His voice was just as ragged as the rest of him, but as he got a good look at the woman approaching him, his eyes bugged out and he whispered, "Justeaze?"

He froze.

"Oh." A faint echo of a memory tickled Illya's mind, "you must be Zouken. You have really not aged well, old man."

"Justeaze, how? Did the dimensional portal bring you here?" Zouken was at a loss. He had spent 500 years trying to find some way to reunite with this woman. True, they did not see eye to eye on many things, but they were competitors, which is the closest, truest relationship a magus could have. And now, completely out of the blue, this rogue dimensional portal had granted him his heart's desire, not once but twice. First giving him another chance at completing the Heavens Feel ritual, and now obviating even the need for that.

"Yes, I expect it did," Illya nodded, as things began to make sense. "And what part did you play in creating this portal?" She carefully continued the odd doorstep conversation with this magus that reeked of corruption and decay. _'Berserker, restrain that man,' _she commanded silently.

The giant took two quick steps forward and before Zouken could recover from his shock, wrapped his massive hand around the decrepit old man.

Who spurted out between his fingers, like wet clay.

"Berserker! You weren't supposed to kill him!" Illya looked appalled. Not that she particularly valued human life – as a disposable homunculus, she had been raised with the idea that humans were expendable – but Berserker was supposed to follow her orders with the precision of a finely tuned machine. But then she saw something odd – the squished materials were moving – squirming towards each other, forming a pile.

"Stomp them!" Illya commanded as she released a squadron of familiars to swoop down and stab the wriggling worms with their beaks, incinerating them.

At the same time, Berserker began trying to kill the worms, but they were small and wriggly, making it a difficult task. The best Berserker could accomplish was to smash through any piles of worms that agglomerated, but many of the worms quickly burrowed into the ground, where they were out of reach of both tiny beaks and massive toes.

"I should have know! That Makiri was always a slimy worm. He thought he was so suave, but everybody knew he was just out for himself. And whenever you challenged his ideas he would just squirm away," Illya ranted, channeling the sliver of Justeaze that all von Einzbern homunculi were created with.

"He is such a pain in the neck." As she said that, she felt a literal pain in her chest. She glanced down to see a the tip of a sword projecting from between her breasts. "Oh".

Assassin stepped back, letting Illya slip off of his cursed sword as his other fist held her magically eviscerated heart. Not that it mattered (he was too professional for that), but he really did enjoy stabbing attractive women in the back. It gave him an almost sexual pleasure.

Berserker turned, but he dissolved into motes of light before he could even take a step. With his massive mana requirements, he did not have any reserves.

"Heh. And that is two," Zouken wheezed as his body reformed. That had been unpleasant, but all was well that ended well. He smiled at his servant. "And the von Einzbern homunculus is an added bonus. With its heart, we have direct control over the Grail."


	5. Chapter 5

Saber set Kotomine Kirei down on the roof. They were in Fuyuki's dockside warehouse district, the scene for so many Servant battles that it had earned an (unwarranted) reputation as a high crime area.

"So, I assume you want me to become your new master, since Tokiomi has proven to be a failure at staying alive."

"Just so, though you would be wise to guard thy tongue better. I am no man's servant."

Kirei swept a bow, "I apologize. Will you make a pact to be my king?" He held out his command seal.

Gilgamesh nodded imperiously.

^lost^

Rin staggered up to her feet as Shirou approached. She cast her detection spell again. "The portal has moved – the battle must have dislodged it from the lei line. Or maybe it was Lancer's death. I don't know." Rin stood apathetically, lost in her own thoughts as Luvia and Shirou glanced at each other.

Shirou put an arm around her, "lets head back to the car. I think we all need some food and rest." It was true – with the jet lag, he had lost track of how long he had been going without either. "I'll make us some dinner."

He led the almost catatonic Rin back to the vehicle and sat down with her in the back as Luvia drove.

Alberto greeted them at the cottage. "What happened, I felt my link to Lancer disappear. I assume he got himself killed?" Alberto did not look so good himself. The bruises had spread, giving him a sickly green complexion over half his body.

"Yeah, it didn't go according to plan." Luvia walked over to the tracking apparatus in the living room as Shirou led Rin up to her room. "Rin's going to need a little time to recover, but I think I can re-tune this to continue searching." Luvia was pretty comfortable with Rin's magecraft – it did have it's roots in stolen Edelfelt magic, after all. And adjusting the parameters of the spell was much less complicated than actually casting it herself.

After putting Rin to bed, Shirou cooked up a simple meal of soup, rice and vegetables. When he was done, Rin was still not down, so it ended up as a quite meal with just the three of them. "Get some rest. We aren't going to be doing anything else today, but I do want to get an early start tomorrow."

Alberto nodded without saying a word and shuffled back to bed.

"You're a pretty good cook." Luvia glanced over at Shirou. Actually, he was pretty close to 5 star. And he was level headed and quick to help. If there wasn't something going on between him and Rin, she might make a pass at him herself. Actually, after this was all over, she might anyways.

"Thanks," Shirou put a bowl of soup on a tray and headed up to Rin's room.

'_If we're going to be here for a while, I might as well get some work done.' _Luvia finished her meal and went over to Megumi's room, to start trying to puzzle out a counterspell.

^lost^

"Are you ok?" Shirou place the tray on the end table and sat down on the bed. Rin was laying curled up, with the blankets pulled up over her head. Shirou had never seen her like this before. She was usually so self assured, to the point of being insensitive. She recovered from any challenges life threw at her with poise and equanimity.

"No. Do I look ok?"

"I can't actually tell, as I can't see any of you," Shirou replied, "I brought you some soup."

That finally lured Rin out from under her blanket – she hadn't had a decent meal in, well, a very long time. Possible since she had walked out of Shirou's life.

"This is almost like back when we were in high school. Remember when you came down with the flu that time, and you refused to be seen in public until you were able to be your usual suave self? You had me feeding you chicken soup for a week."

Rin smirked, "That was because my hands were shaking too badly from the fever." Not true. "I seem to recall you complained about it until I got better," Not true either. "But I can take care of myself now." Not true? Rin quickly changed the subject. "We haven't really talked much. What have you been up to these last few years. Tell me about your heroic adventures." Anything to take her mind off of her self loathing.

[[5 years ago]]

"Here they come" Shirou stood on the barren plain as a dozen men on horseback (and one old Toyota truck) came pounding in from the horizon, a cloud of dust hanging behind them.

Behind Shirou was a village. Their only real asset was a muddy oasis that had water most of the year. For the past couple of months, the nomads had been raiding all the farm villages, and the government wasn't doing anything about it.

As they got closer, Shirou could make out that the riders were carrying assault rifles, but before they could slow to take aim, he sprang into action. He ran for cover behind the closest shack as he fired a series of arrows.

By the time he reached the ramshackle building, four of the attackers were down, and the others had slowed, looking more cautions. Bullets began to whine past him, slamming into the ground or rattling through the corrugated metal that made up the building walls.

A mana-overloaded 'sword arrow' took out the truck and another pair of attackers. The horsemen were not soldiers – with this level of losses, they wheeled around and raced away.

As the villagers came cautiously out from their hiding spots, Shirou turned to the elder who had brought him here (and who was the only one who spoke some broken English), "I will go after them, and take care of them." Shirou's English was not very good either.

Despite the baking heat, the redhead reinforced himself for endurance and set off at a loping run, following the horse tracks.

It was night by the time he caught up to his quarry: the horses were tied up next to a set of tents, with a bunch of sheep milling about in between. The encampment was even ruder than the village - they didn't even have a muddy watering hole.

As he approached the encampment, Shirou could hear the sound of women wailing. Women and children were crowded around the returned raiders. They looked distraught and many were wailing in grief.

They looked no different than the people whom he had been defending. Their pain was as strong as theirs, their grief as raw.

_'__I__s this justice? Who am I fighting for?'_ Shirou turned and walked away.

[[now]]

"I'm not certain that my escapades were so heroic. Too many compromises, too few villains."

Rin skipped the spoon and took a slurp of the soup straight from the bowl. And yelped. It was only through Shirou's quick reflexes that the hot soup didn't end up all over her lap

"Careful, it's a little hot."

"Now you tell!" Rin pouted theatrically. She was surprised at how easily she slipped back into her old ways of behaving with Shirou around. Habits back from a time when she had liked who she was.

Watching her antics, Shirou's mind suddenly flashed back to the time he spent studying with the old Jewish Magus in Rione Sant'Angelo, in Italy. The old Magus liked to quote the Talmud whenever Shirou annoyed him, and one of his quotes stuck with Shirou, because it was such nonsense: 'Whoever saves a single life is counted as if he has saved the whole world.' Except.. looking at Rin, it wasn't nonsense anymore.

Rin nodded, "are you happy?" Maybe if she understood what Shirou was striving for, her own life would make more sense.

Shirou snapped out of his distracted state, parroting his usual line: "as long I am making the world a safer, more just place for people, I'm happy."

Rin frowned. It was just too trite. "Which people?" she demanded.

For the first time, Shirou had an answer, but he there was no way he could voice it, so he shrugged to hide his confusion. "How about you?"

Rin lay back down, her momentary happy mood broken. She wanted to pull the covers back over her head, but she wasn't a coward. "I'm a failure."

"Your apprenticed to what's his name. The really prestigious guy. And every time I visit the Clock Tower, I hear about how everybody is impressed by you." Shirou countered, trying to lighten the mood.

"Zelretch. And yes, I'm a good magus. A great magus, maybe the best of my generation. But that's all I am. I'm a failure as a person." Rin paused, and Shirou sat quietly, waiting for her to continue. "I killed an alternate version of my father."

"He attacked you. You didn't have a chance to stop him."

"Maybe if I had said something, explained who I was and what was happening, he would have stopped. But I didn't even know what to say. I never know what to say." Tears began to run down her cheeks, "I have no experience with talking like a normal person. I have no idea how to talk to people." She rolled over and pressed her face into her pillow, so Shirou could barely make out what she said. "All I do is magecraft. I push people away so I can do more, but I keep becoming less." Shirou sat down on the bed next to her rubbed her back as she sobbed into her pillow.

^lost^

Breakfast the following morning was a subdued affair. Everybody was worn down, physically and emotionally, from the non-stop action. Even Shirou.

"We need to summon another Servant," Alberto was leaning on a tree branch that had been cut into a makeshift cane, "I still have all of my command seals, and with the way this Grail war has been going, there's a good chance that not all of the servants have been summoned even now."

"I'm not saying you're wrong," Luvia was standing behind the couch, leaning against it, "but I am pretty certain that you can only summon one servant per Grail War – after all the connection to the Throne of Heroes if very tenuous, especially without a catalyst."

"We need to concentrate of closing the portal. That's what we are here for." Shirou added from the kitchen as he put the dishes away.

"What's the rush? I know Rin keeps insisting that the portal is an imminent danger, but we haven't seen this one doing anything – the Grail is draining it for power."

"You don't know that," Luvia retorted. The way that Alberto was stating unsubstantiated opinions as fact was grating.

"And you don't know that it isn't. We are just going on Rin's word. If we can win the Grail war, we can use the wish to heal Megumi. Hell, we can heal everybody in the world."

"I'm not certain the Grail has that much power," Shirou replied skeptically. Back in the Fifth grail war, he had accepted all the statements about the Grail system on faith – back then, he barely knew anything about anything. But now, he was more traveled, more knowledgeable, and far more cynical.

Luvia bit at a fingernail pensively. "It actually could. That's the point of True Magic – it breaks paradigms."

Before anybody else could continue the argument, Rin came pounding down the stairs, "I think I know how to get the tracking spell to work! The portal appears to be drawn to the lei lines powering the Grail, so we all we have to do is to trace out along them." She paused to examine the unwieldy scrying apparatus, "Alberto might get his wish – I wouldn't be at all surprised to find the portal is lodged near the lesser Grail."

Shirou smiled, glad to see Rin back up on her feet. Even if she was just pretending to be ok, it was a first step.

"Into the car. The von Einzbern were responsible for creating the lesser Grail so if it's anywhere, it will be in that dilapidated castle of theirs on the edge of Fuyuki. And it sits over a major lei line. Shirou, bring the scrying apparatus."

^lost^

[[earlier]]

Kirei was just stand up from kneeling before his (new) king when he was interrupted:

"So, I see you have gotten my father killed. That is unfortunate. I was looking forwards to killing him myself." Standing on the other side of the rooftop was Sakura, the wind tugging at her short hair. "Archer. Now."

A barrage of arrows struck the spot where Kirei had been standing moments before. The former Executor charged the purple haired woman at the same time as Saber leaped up to the neighboring roof, from whence Archer was shooting.

Razor sharp icicles burst up from the roof in front of him, but Kirei was a skilled fighter - he might have spent the past few months getting a crash course in Magecraft, but before that he had trained for years to fight Dead Apostles and other horrors – his reflexes were unparalleled. He easily dodged around the ice and continued to close on the magus.

Meanwhile, as Saber was in the middle of his arc between the two rooftops, Archer released her next pair of arrow, each trailing a venomous green light. But Saber managed to twist his body in mid air to let them pass him by, with just a slight scratch.

Kirei threw a handful of Black Keys at Sakura from his right hand, following with a fistful of them in his left. Sakura barely skipped back far enough to avoid the attack. She was quick on her feet, but it soon became clear that she was not a skilled fighter. She used her ice magic to deflect attacks that she couldn't dodge, but she did not have an opportunity for anything else.

Kirei smiled as he drove the other magus back. Sakura kept dancing out of the way as she retreated to the only cover available – the little shed housing the stairs into the body of the building.

"You knew what foulness Zouken was doing to me, but you did nothing. You may not be at the same level as Rin, but you are still despicable." Sakura managed to gasp out as she flung herself around the corner, barely avoiding being eviscerated by one of the Keys. It still managed to catch her on the leg, leaving a deep gash. Surprisingly, it did not bleed, but nevertheless, she couldn't put her weight on it.

Kirei laughed, "and what can you do about that?" He wasn't certain what she was babbling about, but her sense of betrayal was intriguing. It was almost enough to make him spare her (for the moment). But he was a trained fighter - you don't play with your opponent, no matter how weak they are. He rounded the corner, lining up a clean strike at his wounded prey.

As he lunged to stab Sakura with a Black Key, a chain whipped around his neck, yanking him backwards. "You always though you were so superior. I was nothing, not even a footnote, to you. I was just the useless little girl that was traded away and then forgotten about." More chains wrapped around Kirei's extremities. The former Executor tried to squirm free, but Rider adjusted the tension, keeping them tight.

"Having a second Servant is always such an unexpected surprise." Sakura picked up one of the discarded Black Keys - "Give my love to dad when you see him" - and stabbed it into Kirei's heart.

Saber had managed to close with Archer, taking advantage of his resistance to arrows. The small scratch from earlier was clearly poisoned, but it barely slowed him. Archer was falling back, desperately using her bow to parry his attacks, when Saber felt his his link to is master (and power source) disappear again. Archer took that opportunity to whip off her blindfold.

The Gorgon gaze smashed through his weakening magic resistance, draining the last of his mana.

"Two for two. I guess you just had some rotten luck in Masters," Sakura joked as she watched her Servant finish off Saber. It was forced – killing Shinji had brought her a modicum of peace, but no joy. And destroying this buffoon was just flat and tasteless. She spat on the ground in a most unladylike fashion and stalked off.

^lost^

"Well, this is a bust," Rin groused. The SUV was parked outside the the wall of the von Einzbern mansion. The mansion was built to resemble a small castle, complete with an outer wall that rose twelve feet high. Now that the car had stopped, the scrying pendulum was lazily precessing about the center of the device – it showed no preference for one side over another: the portal was not near.

"We should go in and check the place out anyway. Maybe we'll see something in person that the spell is missing." Though part of Shirou's curiosity stemmed from wanting to learn about the strange girl from the previous Grail war. And the property looked abandoned - the chances of encountering the alternate version of Illya (and her extremely scary Servant) was low.

"You two go in, Alberto and I will stay with the car." Luvia volunteered. Alberto wasn't up to much walking, and somebody had to keep guard on him. Besides, as much as she liked Rin, being in close quarters with her for this long was starting to grate. The woman never let up.

"Well, the bounded field is just a basic repulsion, but I don't have any way to open the gate without destroying it." Rin prevaricated.

Shirou got out of the car and walked up to the wall. After a quick glance, he jumped to the top and over.

Rin sighed, "I guess we can do it that way," and followed the redhead's example.

"This place is huge." The grounds encompassed several acres of formerly sculpted gardens, as well as a house that could have swallowed the Tohsaka mansion and had room left over for dessert. Rin didn't often get overwhelmed by displays of wealth, but she was Japanese, and she had grown up with land being at a premium.

She walked with Shirou up towards the the main entrance of the mansion. The front door was flung open, revealing another small courtyard. But this one was different from the benign neglect of the front yard. Here, rubble was strewn about where it had been blasted loose from the house: broken glass littered the cobblestone yard, and pieces of stone siding and wood from a sheared off wall lay scattered about.

"Oh, my god!" Rin stopped, cover her mouth as if she was going to be sick. On top of one of the piles lay the desiccated corpse of a woman, the skull peering through the the worm eaten flesh.

Shirou quickly stepped in front of Rin, so as to block out the sight, putting his hands her shoulders, "Are you ok?" He peered close, to make sure.

"Yeah. I'll be ok. It just caught me by surprise. It shouldn't have – Archer did say something about a battle here. I just..." She took a deep breath and pulled herself together, "It's ok. To be a magus is to walk with death." She looked up at Shirou, "This didn't bother you?"

Shirou shook his head, "I've seen worse."

Rin looked up as the redhead stoically tried to comfort her. "You're such an idiot." And pulled him into a hug.

Shirou was completely flabbergasted at such an atypical behavior. Rin was always calm and in control. He had forgotten how in high school she would have these bursts of spontaneity, which she would then promptly try to cover up. He had missed that. Not that he would ever tell her that. "I missed you."

Both of them jerked apart, embarrassed at Shirou's statement.

"Let's go inside, and see if there is anything here," Rin recovered first.

The inside was more of the same – the house stood as it had been abandoned, six years ago. The bounded field had prevented any scavengers (either the two legged or the four legged kind) from entering. The front area showed signs of fighting, and the bodies of two woman – servants that had died defending their mistress. Oddly, the body of Illya was not there, though there were signs of a large fire in the backyard, as of a funeral pyre.

"Let's go. This feels like we are trespassing in a mausoleum."

As they walked across the overgrown lawn towards the outer wall, Shirou began hesitantly, "Do you ever wonder... what if back in high school, we hadn't..."

"No." Rin interpreted abruptly, and picked up her pace. Except, she had, especially these last few days. Rin surreptitiously glanced over at Shirou as they reached the car and sighed. There was nothing to be done – there was no way she was going to admit her mistake.


	6. Chapter 6

"So what next, oh great leader?" Alberto asked as Shirou and Rin returned.

"Let's take a look at the Matou house." When the others looked at him, puzzled, Shirou explained: "There's a chance Sakura will be staying at her family home - we know she came through the portal, so she doesn't have anywhere else to go."

"And we want to find Sakura because?" Asked Luvia,

"She may have some insights, having gone through the portal." That wasn't the real reason. He had seen how Rin had reacted to Sakura. If the two of them met again, it might bring her some closure.

Rin glanced at Shirou _'He's so transparent'_. The idiot wanted to talk to his dead girlfriend, to get a sense of closure. "Let's do it."

"Are there any other Matous?" Alberto asked, "I mean, what if the house has been sold since you live here?"

"The house should be abandoned – there was one other Matou, Zoukan, but I blew that old worm's chest out last time we met." Rin replied with a smile. "But with the way the property was neglected when he was alive, nobody will have noticed the difference."

Luvia quirked an eyebrow at the atypical blood lust. There was a story there, but now was not the time.

"Nevertheless, there will most likely be an active bounded field around the property, so we should approx with caution." Shirou added as they made their careful way down the hill.

^lost^

They parked several blocks from the Matou property so that they could walk in, on the off chance that the bounded field was more than a basic repulsion (Zoukan was not known for his kind heartedness, and inflicting some debilitating disease on trespassers would be his idea of a good joke). If there was a trap of some sort they would be better able to avoid it if they weren't all stuck inside a metal coffin on wheels.

They had not gone far at all when a shadow detached itself from a garden wall.

"Are you here to deal with that worm before he messes with the Grail? Or is this a social call?" Sakura asked bluntly as she turned to face the foursome.

"He's alive?" Rin asked incredulously. Sakura ignored what was obviously a stupid question. She still had her manners, after all.

"This isn't a social call, but we aren't competing for the Grail," Shirou answered promptly. "Our present concern is the portal that you came through."

"Wait, whatever Zoukan is doing might be connected to the portal." Luvia stepped in front of Shirou, "How do you know that something is going on with the Grail? Is it somehow connected to the portal?"

Sakura looked at the blond, puzzled. "No, this is.." She glanced around, "Can we go somewhere else to talk about this? It's kind of exposed out here, and I feel this conversation will take a while."

"We can go grab some lunch as we talk, I saw a place as we drove." Luvia jerked her head back the way they had come.

Rin nodded. She hadn't eaten much last night, and she had forgotten breakfast this morning.

"I am fine with that, as long as it is just us four," Sakura replied, "But I don't want her." She pointed at Rin.

"Well, that sort of help we don't need." Luvia retorted.

"Actually, you do. In addition to being a worm, Zouken is a Master. I have Servant Archer, to balance the scales. Without me, you won't stand a chance." Archer faded into view, leaning insouciantly against the wall, under the shade of small tree that draped over from the other side.

Alberto stared – that was the Servant that had shot Megumi! He glared daggers at her, but Archer was impervious to looks.

"Sakura, I want us to work together. You are right that your Servant will be a significant asset. And I expect we will work well together – I was good friends with the Sakura of this world. But I will only do so if you are willing to work with Rin as well."

Rin looked up in surprise as Shirou stepped closer to her. "It's either all of us, or none of us."

Sakura frowned before breaking into a smile, "Fine, I am willing to make small sacrifices for you, Sempai." When she said 'sacrifices', her eyes darted towards Rin momentarily.

"And you will have to tell us how to cure the petrification poison," Alberto interjected.

Sakura glanced over at Archer. Archer gave a nod. "Done. It's actually a curse, not a poison. I will give you the counter-spell."

^lost^

"I had no idea," Shirou repeated, appalled. Sakura had broken Grail fragments embedded in her via crest-worm grubs. It was appalling. Did his Sakura have the same thing done to her? Shirou glanced over at Rin, but she looked as confused as he did, though her confusion was quickly replaced with anger. The group was sitting in a sushi restaurant, the remains of an early lunch spread out on the table in front of them. The restaurant was mostly empty, as it was still too early for most diners, but Luvia had ensorcelled their booth so that sound wouldn't carry beyond it, just in case.

"We'll go find that scum bag Zouken and turn him into worm food!"

Sakura looked smug as she looked around the room. '_That's right. __Y__ou should feel guilty for what you let happen to me.'_ "He already IS worm food. Or at least, there is nothing to the creature you know as Zouken except a mass of crest worms barely held together by the concept of 'human' stolen from the hapless drifters he murders on a regular basis."

"How has he managed to hide that for all this time?" Rin asked, appalled.

"He buried them in the back yard. And neither the mundane authorities nor the rather inept second owner cared much for some nobodies barely holding on to life." Sakura shrugged, affecting non-challance.

"We'll need a plan." Luvia was less affected by the revelations. After all, she had no connection to this purple haired prima dona. "If the mansion has been his lair for so long, it is likely to be filled with traps for the unwary. And it doesn't seem like the portal is as much of an immediate threat as you first thought." Luvia didn't want to say it, but it seemed like Rin had overreacted a little. Maybe Zelretch left because he wanted to test how well Rin handled the problem by herself, and not for some nefarious reason. Rin had always been a little paranoid.

Rin nodded in agreement. It was annoying, but Luvia wasn't completely wrong. "Let's list what we know. One: there will be bugs - flying blade worms, as well as exploding acidic bugs."

"Two: Zouken almost certainly has a Servant," added Sakura, "the Matou are one of the three founders of the ritual, after all."

"Zouken can can dis-incorporated, so most physical attacks won't injure him."

"I don't have any anti-bug spells," Rin was still fixated on the creepy-crawly aspect.

"I think I have something that will slow Zouken down – I have done a little studying since we last had to deal with him." Shirou began. He always felt awkward volunteering his ideas in front of Rin: She was so much smarter, that it felt presumptuous.

"You can try your runes as a last resort. If we can get him close enough to the portal, I can use that to sweep him up – kill two birds with one stone." Rin stood up and began to pace: She did her best thinking that way. Shirou watched her with a nostalgic smile.

Sakura hesitated, and then volunteered, "If he has access to the lesser Grail, he is liable to have weaponized it."

"What does that mean?" Alberto shifted position anxiously. He hated sitting and planning like this. He was a man of action! And having Archer here, invisible, made the back of his neck itch. He did not like nor trust that woman. He poked at the food on his plate - he hadn't been able to eat anything.

"I don't know. But that is what he did with the Grail fragments," She pointed at herself. "He created a tool that let him over-ride other Servants. Who knows what he will be able to do with an entire operational lesser Grail."

"So we will proceed with caution." To Shirou's mind nothing had changed. They would still go in, keeping their eyes open, and kill the monster in his lair. End of story.

^lost^

"Ok, here goes nothing," Sakura smiled as she attempted to bypass the wards. Since she was familiar with the Matou magic, Rin's plan called for her to deactivate the wards such that Zouken wouldn't have any warning. Sakura figured it had a 50-50% chance of working.

Shirou gave her an encouraging nod. Sakura stood at the edge of the property and cast her spells.

Time ticked by.

Luvia glanced back to where Alberto was waiting in the car, as an emergency back up. Rin scuffed her toe in the dirt as she waited.

Sakura breathed out and her shoulder's slumped."I can't get a handle on it – the spell is too intricate. But at least I don't think I set off the alarm."

Rin shrugged, "Ok, lets try something else. Instead of moving the wards, can you freeze them, so that they stay the way that they are?"

"Yeah. That should be do-able" Sakura replied, puzzled.

"Do it."

Once again Sakura began to cast. This time, she smiled and nodded. "I got them, but I can't keep them like this for long."

Rin jerked her head in a short nod as she started her own spell. Within moments, a small dimensional rift rippled through the ground, right at the edge of the ward. The portal was shoddy, and fell apart moments after it appeared, but the dirt that had intersected with it fell inside, leaving a shallow gully.

"Has the ward filled that space?

Sakura shook her head no, as she concentrated to keeping the ward out.

Shirou didn't need to be told what to do – he threw himself face down through the gully and out the other side.

Rin and Luvia followed more cautiously, and finally Archer and Sakura came through. Archer stayed incorporeal, so as not to trigger any detection spells. Even with with the best spells Rin could cast on her, if she materialized anywhere on the property, the wards would trigger.

"Ok, that was the easy part. Now follow me. From this point on, no talking." Sakura led the way through the overgrown bushes to the back door. It was locked, but Luvia stepped forward and poured a little potion into the lock, and the Universal Lubricant loosened the mechanism so that it opened silently in her hand.

Now Shirou took the lead. That had actually been a point of contention – the group had argued over who would be in front. Luvia and Alberto insisted that Sakura take the lead. Since it was (sort of) her house, she was the most likely one to recognize a trap. But Sakura and Shirou had argued that this house wouldn't be the exact same as her childhood home due to the passage of time and alternate realities. And Shirou had added that he had the most experience in these situations.

It had finally been up to Rin to break the deadlock, and she had sided with Sakura.

Shirou walked down the narrow corridor, sniffing for any magical traps as he scanned the walls for more mundane perils. This was the servants section of the mansion (not that there had been any servants in over a century), so the corridor was barely wide enough for Shirou's' shoulders.

The doorway leading down into the labyrinthine basement – the lair of Zouken – was supposed to be just a little ways ahead.

Sakura glanced nervously at the smallest noise, expecting one of Grandfathers grubs to be peering at them from the cracks.

But they reached the door without sounding any alarm. Shirou checked it thoroughly before pulling it open and beginning his descent. He had reinforced his eyes, so he could see by the dim light of his genuine Special Forces issue flashlight (taken off of the body of a genuine Special Forces soldier).

After the first stair, there was another set of corridors. Sakura reached out and tapped Shirou's shoulder whenever they needed to take a turn. Finally, they came to the second stairwell. The area that they had gone through had been maze like, but at least it had felt like a normal storage space, albeit created by somebody over fond of compartmentalization. What lay ahead was a stairwell spiraling down into a rough hewn pit that had no place under any modern house. A trickle of light filtered up, so Shirou turned off his flashlight before continuing down.

As they began the descent, a voice called out, "Ah, so the prodigal daughter returns," a dry, rasping laugh echoed up, "did you think I would not see you?"

Shirou spotted a figure standing by a table holding the one lamp that was casting an island of light at the bottom of the dank chamber. "Take cover." He dropped the twenty feet to the ground, projecting a strange pair of swords – they were crude, barely sharp, and made from some sort of bone.

Archer materialized just in time to block a pair of thrown knives that snapped out of the darkness from stabbing Sakura.

Archer dropped to the floor, but she barely had time to turn and block Assassin as he made a quick slash at her flank before disappearing into the gloom again. Archer took up a guard position, holding a short sword in place of her bow, but Assassin was nowhere to be seen.

At the same time, a mass of blackness erupted from a shallow pit in the ground, leaving behind a petite skeleton. It was more a shadow given substance than an actual physical thing, but nevertheless it raced up the wall towards where the three woman were descending the stairs. A rainbow spear shot out from Luvia's hand, but it just passed clear through the inky mess without inflicting any visible damage.

"What is that?" Luvia demanded.

"The old Grail." Sakura whispered, recognizing an analog of what used to dwell inside her.

Rin unloaded a pair of gems at the amorphous horror flowing up the wall towards them. The gems hit, detonating on contact, but the thing just reformed around the holes without a pause.

Sakura reached down to place her hand on the stone of the stair, and ice grew from her hand down towards the shadow. The cold finally had an affect, slowing it, but even that wasn't enough – it was still flowing up the wall.

Rin glanced back up the way the had come. "Retreat to the corridor – we'll catch it in a crossfire!"

Shirou was about to close with Zouken when he saw motion out of the corner of his eye: He ducked as Assassin jabbed out his hand at where Shirou's head had been a moment ago.

Shirou tucked and rolled, coming up facing Assassin a moment later. Assassin made another attack that Shirou managed to deflect, but then he had to retreat as Archer joined the fray, stabbing at Assassin with a Greek short sword. Her attacks were graceless, but they were sufficient to keep the other Servant occupied.

The redheaded magus looked for an opening to sneak past the two Servants and attack Zouken, but the ancient magus just chortled a phlegmy laugh and dissolved into a flood of insects which skittered up the wall.

Shirou glanced over at the servants battling it out, but his fighting style was really designed for fighting alone, so he wouldn't be of much use. Besides, he had more important battles to fight. Shirou turned towards the stairs, but before he could take more than a step, the door exploded out.

[[moments earlier]]

In the corridor, Sakura was crouching down, sending ice towards the creature as it oozed out from under the door. As the cold slowed it down, Luvia hit it with her own freezing potion just before Rin detonated a gem under the creature, blowing the stair door off its hinges

The inky horror shrugged off the damage. The explosion had diminished its size, but it didn't seem to care as it flung itself at Rin and Sakura.

Rin's Gandr was simply absorbed by it. It was just about to envelop the two women in its inky blackness when another Servant – a purple haired beauty wielding a pair of spikes – materialized in front of Sakura, knocking the thing off course. But she did not have time to even turn to face it, as the horror latched onto her arm, flowing up it like oil and enveloping all of her in a skin of blackness.

_'T__his is j__u__st like __what happened to__ Saber, back in the previous war,' _Rin grabbed Sakura and yanked her back towards the stairs. She had no idea where this new Servant had appeared from, but she doubted it would fare as well as Saber had. They had mere moments before it attacked them. "Hit it now!" She called to Luvia.

Luvia grimaced and threw two more of her rainbow barrier potions. She was starting to run out. This was turning into a very expensive adventure. The two potions shattered, splattering rainbows in all directions, creating a kaleidoscopic barrier between the women Magi and the now black coated Servant. Luvia darted after Rin.

"It stole my Servant," Sakura whispered, outraged.

"Go down stairs," Luvia commanded, adding by way of explanation, "I'm not certain how long the barrier will last, and we'll need more fire power to take that thing."

Rin stumbled back down the stairs, yelling, "Shirou, do it now! His construct just possessed another Servant!" There was a shattering sound from upstairs and shards of color came bouncing off the wall and tinkling down the stairs as the blackened Servant smashed through the rainbow barrier.

Rin pushed the others down the stairs as she unleashed lightning at the rogue Servant, but Rider easily avoided the attack, racing up the wall and then down toward Rin, spikes in either hand.

Shirou looked around, but Zouken was nowhere to be seen – he was still hiding as disparate worms burrowed into the cracks of the wall. But Shirou's eye caught on the shallow pit holding the skeletal remains of the petite woman, still clad in scraps of clothing. He leaped past where the Servants were fighting and took one of his bone swords, plunging it into the corpse.


	7. Chapter 7

[[earlier]]

The magi were all cramped together in the booth at the Sushi restaurant, discussing the plan Rin had woven for the upcoming raid on Zouken (drawn from Sakura's knowledge of the mansion), when Shirou interrupted.

"Here." Shirou projected a crude sword. It was poorly made, with hardly an edge to it. "After what that Shinji revenant did to Saber, I got to considering how I would deal with an enemy like him. This is my solution" He held the sword out to Rin.

She examined it for a moment before recoiling, "It's doing something to my spells."

Shirou nodded, "the original of this sword was made from one of Dad's rib. I exhumed his body and used his bones to create a sword."

"Why?" Alberto asked, less disturbed by the concept than the others - he wasn't Japanese so he didn't have the same reverence for his ancestors.

"My stepfather's origin was Severing and Sealing. Anything cut by this sword will be magically cut off from the rest. As a weapon it is nothing special, but if it hits a magus who is using a spell, his mage circuits will be severed and sealed from use."

[[now]]

Shirou plunged the bone sword into the skeletal remains of the girl lying in the shallow grave. The sword snapped in the cadaver' chest.

As it did, the blackened Rider staggered just short of Rin, dropping to one knee on the stairs as something inhuman screeched. Before she could recover, the Tohsaka braced herself and drained a gem: "Blitzvorhang!"

Rin eyes crossed in concentration as she condensed the lighting into a single narrow cone which rippled over Rider. The Servant tried to dodge, but the shock from Shirou severing the spell had slowed her enough so that she was struck by multiple bolts, with others smashing into the stairs by her feet, blasting apart some stones and scorching others.

"No!" Zouken materialized, off to one side, holding something red and pulpy in his hand. A moment later, a giant glowing shape appeared next to him. It looked like an hourglass, or a crude challis.

At the same time Assassin somehow managed to slip past Archer and lashed out at Sakura with his knife. Luvia spotted him at the last moment, deflecting his arm up so that his knife missed Sakura neck by inches. In such close quarters Assassin was able to latch on to her arm and twist. Luvia defended by shifting her weight, so that instead of getting thrown off of the stairs, she threw Assassin. But the Servant was able to maintain his grip, pulling Luvia down as well, so that they both fell twenty feet, landing hard.

Assassin rolled back to his feet, but he wasn't quick enough – an arrow hit him in the lower leg, punching through his calf muscle.

But Luvia lay still.

Immediately, Rin jumped down to her friend.

Luvia was covered in blood.

While Assassin squared off against Archer again, Shirou charged Zouken.

Light poured from the partial materialized Grail, and the floor responded in kind, rippling with color as Zouken used the Grail system to take control of the rogue portal.

Shirou barely avoided stepping onto a tendril of the portal (and dropping into some foreign reality), throwing himself into a roll to his right as the portal pooled up from the floor.

Zouken made a flourish with his arm, and the air was filled with winged blade worms. They came out of the walls, creating a swarm that swirled like a tornado through the entire room.

As the swarm expanded, Sakura jumped down next to her estranged sister and raised a dome of ice over the both of them, to act as a shield.

Rin nodded her thanks as she desperately searched Luvia for the stab wound.

Archer leaped up to a ledge on the far side of the room. Assassin tried to follow her up, but the poison in his leg wound caused it to buckle. As he stumbled, three arrow impacted into his torso. The first two spun him around, and the third pinned him to the ground.

At the same time, Shirou flung himself at the wall above the dimensional pit. Flipping over at the last moment so that his feet hit first, he pushed off like a human cannonball right at Zouken. The mage was mildly surprised, but not overly perturbed as Shirou smashed through him. The redhead rolled to his feet, covered in biting larvae from where he had passed through Zouken, and slashed at the worm mage with the crude weapon in his hand.

Zouken again dissolved into a chittering pile of bugs. But as the sword swept through the Zouken swarm, he screamed in pain, his top half returning to human while the rest was still a swarm of bugs.

As he collapsed to the floor, screaming, Shirou materialized another copy of the Kiritsugu rib sword and sliced his head off.

The bug swarm hurricane immediately collapsed.

"So, it's over," Sakura looked at the source of so much of the misery in her life. Even if he wasn't the exact same person, he was still evil.

"Not yet." Rin looked up from Luvia. She had managed to stop the bleeding, and Luvia was still breathing, but Rin was exhausted - she didn't have enough reserves to do much more than that. "I still need to close the portal. Shirou, bring the Grail over here so I can disentangle it from the portal."

"We need to make our wish," Archer pronounced as she landed on the floor. "The Master needs to initiate it."

Sakura nodded. She wasn't certain what to wish for, anymore. So much had changed in the past two days. She glanced at Rin. Did she still want her dead? Or... maybe in this world, they could have a normal relationship, like real sisters?

"Don't touch the Grail until I deal with the portal!" Rin insisted as Shirou carried the glowing lesser Grail over to their side of the room, skirting the portal carefully.

"But that could destabilize the whole system. It's only powered because of the portal."

"That's a risk we're going to have to take," Rin squared off with Sakura. She didn't want to fight with her sister. Even if it wasn't actually HER sister. But this Sakura was the closest she would ever have. And getting a second chance at having a relationship was not something she would waste.

"Look, I will do the best I can to keep the Grail intact," Rin pleaded, very unlike her usual confident manner.

Sakura nodded tentatively.

_Twang_

The arrow took Sakura though the throat.

As Sakura dropped, Rin looked up in shock, first at Archer, and then at Shirou, but they were equally surprised.

Thunk

Alberto dropped down the from the ruined stairs to the floor, staggering slightly in pain. "She was responsible for almost killing Megumi." The magazine on his crossbow automatically loaded another quarrel, and he kept it targeted steadily on Rin.

"That wasn't on purpose. You know that!" Rin dropped down to Sakura's side as Shirou edged himself towards the two women.

"Archer! I am the last master. If you make a covenant with me, you can get your wish!"

Shirou launched himself at Alberto. He wasn't certain what Alberto's wish was, but he was a threat to the people he loved.

Thunk! The crossbow bolt ricocheted off of Shirou's coat. The runes lit up as they dissipated the energy.

Shirou projected Kanshou and Bakuya. He rarely used these, but he needed something stronger than usual to secure the future for Sakura and Rin.

As he was about to cut down Alberto, he felt more than saw a pair of arrows coming at his back. He dropped and spun around, slashing them from the air as he landed on the ground just shy of Alberto.

"I agree," Archer called out.

Alberto lunged for the Grail. A light washed over him, and his eyes lit up from the inside. A moment later, he pronounced "I wish that Megumi... no," he glanced at Luvia, "that everybody is restored to health." The Grail pulsed and the portal pulsed back. Archer gave a start. She had time for one panicked look before she was sucked into the Grail. Then, with a huge rush of force, something ripped out of the portal, tearing it into pieces that flew apart.

"What was that?" Shirou asked as something began to scrabble at his mind. He focused past it, and the sensation withdrew, "did any of you feel that?"

Albero looked confused, "No, that's not…"

Rin broke out in a cold sweat sweat. "That was an attempted possession." She stood up from Sakura's body as she poured prana through her magic circuits, a quick defense against whatever was attacking her.

The Grail gave another pulse, and another gust of something was expelled from it, filling the room momentarily before swirling up the stairs.

Shirou wasn't certain what was going on, but it was not good, and the Grail was the source. He recreated the married swords and slammed them into the Grail, to no effect.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Alberto called out, his voice panicky as he stepped between Shirou and the Grail. "We can get control of it."

A Gandr sphere struck him in the chest, knocking him to the ground, "Hit it again!" Rin yelled.

Shirou focused all of his energy and projected the last weapon that the crazy Archer from the previous war had shown him.

With a great cry, he swung Excalibur around, smashing through the grail and into the ground.

^lost^

"This is not good." Rin was standing on the balcony that jutted from the gabled third floor of of the Matou mansion, past the drooping eves. Her eyes weren't reinforced like Shirou's but even she could see the revenants – the 'living Dead' - shambling through the streets. "Whatever tried to possess us must have decided cadavers are easier prey – it is raised the dead. We have to find some way to put those things down before they destroy the city."

"Or more – we don't know how far that spell reached." Shirou held on to the jutting roof as he stood on the railing. "On the plus side, all of the Dead appear to be heading towards us." There was a muted banging from the other side of the house. "What?"

Rin ran back inside only to return a moment later. "Damn, there is no window on the other side!" She ran back to the balcony. "Shirou, help me up onto the roof."

Shirou boosted Tohsaka up onto the roof before following her up. As they clambered onto the small flat section at the very top, there was another bang from below

"What the!" Rin swore, "Why is there a graveyard in on the Matou property?"

Shirou didn't bother to state the obvious – that it made disposing of murdered people easier.

"I think they just broke the door." Shirou projected a bow and took a shot at the nearest Dead. As expected, the arrow ripped through the cadaver without unduly inconveniencing it. "I can't do anything against these from here. I'll go guard the door while you dispel them."

Rin scowled at Shirou, "Just like that? That's pretty arrogant."

"No, I just trust you. You're the best at what you do." Shirou gave Rin a bright smile.

Rin blushed. From anybody else, it would have sounded mocking, but Shirou was too straightforward. If he said it, he honestly meant it. "Ok, baka. I'm depending on you to keep me safe until I get it done, got it?" She was about to start her spell when she turned back and gave the idiot a quick peck on the cheek. "For luck," and darted back out onto the balcony.

With a nod, Shirou turned and leaped down the stairs, four at a time.

He met the first cadaver as it shuffled into the kitchen. Despite the press of combat, Shirou couldn't help noticing that the the kitchen looked abandoned – there were cobwebs everywhere, and dust covered everything save for the sink and a lone plate.

Shirou stepped past the reaching grasp of the zombie and used Kanshou to strike at its arm. The sword bit deep into the zombie, but the Dead didn't care – it kept reaching for Shirou, forcing him to strike it twice more in quick succession to disable it. During that time, more of the revenants had forced their way in through a window.. He couldn't afford to let them into the house – Rin was depending on him.

It took a dozen blows to stop those, and by then two more had shuffled their way in through the smashed in back door, and there was a monotonic pounding from the front door, as something there tried to break its way in. The Dead were not much threat one on one, but they took so long to destroy that Shirou was getting mobbed.

Shirou retreated to the staircase leading up to the second floor, so that anything coming in the front wouldn't be able to get past him and attack Rin. Luvia was still down in the basement, and he hoped she was safe, but there was nothing he could do for her right now. He existed to protect Rin.

He decapitated another zombie, but that didn't slow it much either.

"Shirou!" Rin wailed. The redhead whipped around to look up the stairs towards Rin

"Are you ok?"

"I'm sorry, I can't dispel them. Whatever the Grail did, its holding too tight to the bodies." She looked distraught. "I could hit them a massive fire spell, but that would cause a lot of collateral damage." She stumbled down the stairs towards Shirou.

Shirou was confused why she had called out – she appeared to be safe, but he didn't have much time to think, as he turned back and kicked a zombie that had made it onto the stairs back down, tangling it with its brethren.

"It's ok."

Rin nodded, relieved. She was a scholar, not a warrior. She wasn't used to having no time to plan and problem solve. This non stop improvisation was throwing her self confidence out of kilter. She shook her head. She didn't have time for this. "We need to get out of here. We can't fight them without a plan."

"We need to get Luvia."

"Right. I'll go get... Watch out!" Rin interrupted herself as a zombie stepped forward, impaling itself on Shirou's sword and wrapped its arms around him. Shirou tried to cut it off with his other blade, but it was too close in. Their combined weight toppled him back into the stairwell.

Rin let loose with a blast of lightning that cleared their immediate area. With the pressure reduced, Shiru managed to push himself free, having cleaved the revenant into twain with his other sword. Unfortunately, the Dead were pretty much immune to lightning - most of the zombies got back up a few moments later, singed but otherwise fully mobile.

Shirou quickly stepped in and cut to pieces one of the smoking zombies, but then Rin staggered into him as more zombies pushed down the stairs.

The pair were forced down the stairs, step by step. "Why are they so fixated on us?" Rin gasped, as she sent another blast of lightning past Shirou.

"It's not us, it's the mansion." Shirou replied as he chopped another zombie.

Rin started, "Of course! They aren't heading for the Matou mansion – they are heading for the portal. Shirou we need to get back down to the bottom cavern."

Rin turned and raced down the stairs, as Shirou fought a more measured retreat. She leaped down, past Luvia and raced for the illuminated side of the room, where the portal had been.

"Wh'ts going on?" Luvia slurred. She was awake, but she wasn't going to be much help.

"You need to get into that corner over there!" Rin pointed to a small alcove on the far side of the room. It was as much 'out of the way' as this open chamber allowed.

Luvia nodded as Rin began chanting, pulling together the remains of the portal. At the same time, she sketched a rudimentary pentagram, not worrying if the spell was perfect.

It was actually so far from perfect that it was a joke .

"Um, Rin, " Luvia called out, sounding a little better "Is it really a good idea to create another portal?" She glanced to where Alberto was sprawled. She couldn't tell if he was unconscious or dead, but she was I no shape to check. It took all her energy to sit without throwing up.

"Fight fire with fire, I always say." Rin grinned as she took a break. Inside the pentagram was an unstable quicksilver ripple, "Besides, we need to siphon up whatever the Grail spewed out, so I am supercharging the remains, making it into a lodestone for anything that came through." At Luvia's sudden intake of breath, Rin continue, "No, it's not a good idea, but its better than the alternative!" The statement turned into a yip as the upper half of a zombie fell off of the stairs and landed right next to her feet. She bombarded it with a barrage of Gandr until it stopped moving. "I hate zombies."

"A little help up here!" Shirou called out as he was forced back another step.

Rin nodded, and with with a short incantation raised a fog.

"Not helping!" Shirou was forced back more.

"Its an exorcism. I tried it when I was on the roof. It's not strong enough to stop the revenants, but it should slow them down a little."

"Yeah, but it ruins my visibility," Shirou barely blocked a clutching hand.

"Just hold out a little longer!" Rin cast another spell on the portal, the quicksilver surface bean to ripple, and then boil.

A silvery 'something' was ripped from the closest zombie, and into the portal. The zombie collapsed, dead.

Shirou was forced to leap down to the ground as more Dead pressed in on him. He retreated, fending off any zombie that came close, but with all the open space, more and more of them began to make their way around him. But as they got closer to the portal they staggered and collapsed, sometimes falling apart into disjointed body parts, if they were in bad enough condition.

"It's working!" Shirou smiled, as he edged towards Rin, who was trapped between the edge of the portal and the cavern wall as she avoided getting grabbed by the zombies.

Rin smiled. This is the way it was supposed to be – the two of them working together. It didn't really matter what they were doing, but as long as it was with Shirou, it was good._ 'I'm in love again.' _Except this time, she was fine with it. "Shirou, I know that this really isn't the time," Rin ducked back from a zombie and gave it a shove towards the vortex, "but you want to give it another try?" She smiled at his incredulous look.

Shirou was just opening his mouth to reply when a feminine voice rattled "You always ruin everything!" Both magi looked up to see Sakura running towards them, her hands stretching into claws. Shirou dropped into a defensive stance, batting aside a swipe. As he did, he realized that he wasn't Sakura's target – she was racing past him, towards a bewildered Rin. He turned and leaped at the zombie? Possessed Magus? Dead apostle? Shirou wasn't certain what she was, but he knew that he couldn't allow her to hurt Rin.

He threw himself into Sakura just as she reached Rin.

The undead magus tripped and fell, spinning into the portal.

The half-constrained portal flashed bright red, then orange before exploding into a tower of energy.

"Oh, shit." Rin tried to contain the broken portal, taming it down momentarily, but that made it worse, as then it exploded upwards, bursting up through the Matou mansion and lancing the clouds.

The pillar of energy began to spin, sucking at the souls around it.

Shirou took a defensive stance next to Rin, in case she needed help. But other than that, he was uncertain what to do.

He was standing just watching Rin when Sakura was flung back out, claws outstretched, her mouth gaping wide and filled with rows of needle sharp teeth as she leaped for his throat. Shirou caught the monster bare handed, barely keeping her away from him. The horrible thing was that she was still recognizable as Sakura.

Shirou barely had time to dodge, and Sakura's claws threw sparks from his enchanted coat. He pushed her arm aside and projected Kanshou, but before he could strike, Sakura spun all the way around, grabbing his coat as she went, yanking him towards the vortex.

The redhead barely managed to avoid falling in, but as he did, he smeared out Rin's hasty pentagram. The tornado that had been contained inside gained more force, drawing itself higher and then spreading out sideways, enveloping everything in the room before imploding with a deafening boom.

There was silence.

Nothing moved in the destroyed room. Rubble from the mansion was littered on the ground. Dead cadavers lolled on the ground, no longer moving. Part of Alberto jutted from under a support beam.

"Um, guys? Is anybody here?" Luvia pushed the broken remains of the table off of her and looked around the chamber.

She was the only person there.

END

I have one more story in mind to conclude this trilogy, but I am having a hard time figuring out how to make it the story that I want to tell. So it might be the summer before I post the next part.

It will be titled B'Derech


	8. Final chapter

I have just posted the first chapter of the final story. It is:

b'Derech – on the way

It is a crossover of Fate Stay Night and Avengers (and is posted in the crossover section)


End file.
